deadtention | R1 DEADLAND

I did wonder how someone other than Vivi could be her creator....

[Well. Those would definitely both sound like styles of depression coping he's tried before. Yoosung had been staying up late even without games to fill the void, writing in his journal... but after that made him a target for the other night owls around, he can see the appeal of sleeping early and often now. Not that it sounds great, because it really sounds boring. But "fun" isn't always what it's cracked up to be either. Yoosung sighs, resigned.]

If there's really that little to do here... guess I should just get used to it.

[Though he punctuates that with a little "hrmph" noise, slipping an arm underneath a pillow to hug it and sulk. He'll sort of half-heartedly lay his head down in the process as well, but as they both might have expected, his thoughts aren't drifting to anywhere restful at all yet.]

...I wonder if they caught him...

[They hadn't run into anyone, even after chocolate, tracking down Eve, and room shopping. That's ... bad, he's pretty sure. There's no way they wouldn't have done a trial after the motive was laid out so clearly. "Sorry," he had said, (désolé, c’est ma faute), if he bothered to say that out loud to Yoosung, he may as well have also said that to whoever it was he was planning to make take the fall, through him. He'd feel guilty for them too. With all other threats pushed back to the past and the safety in numbers, he's finally getting the "opportunity" to worry about that.]

The new class has three guys who are detectives, but I didn't get to know any of em' that well.

[Where's Jake when you need him. Then again, maybe Mishima wishes he hadn't been there the first time.]

[Once Yoosung finally happens upon Aiden, he's honestly even more stunned to see him than Mishima. Maybe it was just because they hadn't gotten particularly close during the entrance exam, yet his disappearance was the first major shock that made him anxious to figure out what the voices meant by "it will get worse", the possibility of seeing him again had never once occurred to him. He was just a confusing existence. And now Yoosung has found him... truly a reminder that he's passed on to the other side. But how do you even greet such an entity? By awkwardly waving, I guess.]

Oh, hey... [It's me, Yoosung! I'm dead now!! He can't say that.]

...Remember me? [Yeah, that's more like it. They're in the garden by the way.]

Well, that was before the setting changed to this, so there might be more to do now.

[ The place they were in before had lacked some of the things they'd had at the school, but he assumes they have most of those things back now. Like the pool, and maybe some working computers.

...

There is something a little uncomfortable about this line of conversation between a victim and a culprit, regardless of whether they had anything to do with each other's cases. As much as Mishima feels guilty and blames himself for everything, he also still can't quite shake his resentment for some of the people who helped (rightfully) convict him. It's probably especially unfair of him when it comes to Jake, since he'd been nice about it and even volunteered to take his place as a suspect before Mishima had gone and opened his stupid mouth.

But just the same, between him and Sherlock and Goro Akechi, Mishima doesn't really like thinking about detectives too much anymore. (Way to ruin the entire mystery genre, self.) ]

I'm sure they did, if there are that many. Anyway, I'm pretty sure almost everyone likes you, even if they don't know you well, so I don't think there's any way they'd let the person who-- did that [ because "killed you" isn't something he knows if he wants to say ] get away with it. Maybe he's here but is just keeping a low profile because of it.

[Yoosung hadn't really considered that it would be insensitive - he was the one that yelled at Mishima for trying to bus someone in his place, and he'd thought he'd come to understand from that, even more or less asking him to vote. Not that he'd voted for Mishima, so how much room does he really have to talk. And maybe that grace was short-lived, when he was executed through such a terrible, demeaning, personal attack. Yoosung can't imagine what it would have been like to go through that. He doesn't wish it on anyone, but that's just the grim reality they're all forced to face, and he'd understand any amount of bitterness about it. Still, he was glad Mishima had listened to him back then. It's one of the reasons he can now give him his full support, and accept his in return.

He's not bad at it either. Yoosung blinks at his answer - that 'everyone liked him' wasn't something he was at all sure about. A few of the new people were suspicious of his arrival, and he'd gotten into more fights than the previous time. He still doesn't know what to make of his last tiff with Mitarai, that had come off like it was the start of some overblown shounen anime rivalry in his head. In light of that, it's at least a little flattering that Mishima would see reality this way. The gist of his assumption doesn't strike him as being wrong, either. Thinking about all of the other entrance examinees, and the others who had simply been friendly to him... yeah, even if they didn't have one person to solve it in a flash, like a detective, like last time, he could believe in all of them together. And he does. To calm him down, it was exactly the right thing to say...]

Yeah, you're right. They wouldn't. ...And that's probably for the best. You know, I don't think I could hold off confronting him. [But that would ultimately cause him more stress, and the tensions in this place to rise, which he doesn't exactly want either. Let's go back to talking about how this afterlife is not the same one as Mishima remembers.]

Well, it looks just like the school as I knew it, but we could definitely explore it later.

[ Look, Mishima fully accepts that he was the right person to be executed, and he feels bad that he ever suggested any of the others should go in his place, but-- he still just kind of resents everyone who came out and pointed fingers at him instead of keeping quiet and letting him confess to it himself. Which he would have done eventually! Probably.

...Well, it's not like he would have let Akira get killed in his place, anyway. ]

At least whenever you run into him again you won't be on your own. I mean, I've got your back [ not that he... can do much, but hopefully the thought counts for something ], and I'm sure Aiden will too.

[ And Hollyleaf, probably, but he feels kind of bad about the idea of a cat fighting, even if her canon is literally Warrior Cats. ]

[If only they knew. Yoosung would feel bad about a cat fighting too, although 'a fight' being the reason for these numbers amassing, one of whom is clearly more physically strong than either of them... he laughs a bit.]

Um. Are we forming a gang...?

[He's joking... but then again. He can't say he wouldn't feel good about the backup. For moral support.]

I didn't mean anything like that!

[ He kind of laughs too, but then he stops to think about it for a second. ]

Though, I mean, it wouldn't necessarily be bad to have, like... our own version of the Phantom Thieves, sort of?

[ If they're going to keep getting more victims and killers here, they should try to protect the former from the latter, right? Um, himself excluded. ]

[That's okay, Mishima. You're the only killer in the history of murdergames that everyone thinks should have been protected from his victim instead of the other way around.

Yoosung wasn't expecting that angle, of course. I mean, him, a phantom thief? Kurusu himself was already giving him critique on his sneakiness. He doesn't even pirate movies... the only thing about that title that applies to him is being. Well. A Ghost, Probably. So he kind of snorts.]

We're way more 'phantom' than 'thief', Mishima.

[Though the PhanSite is the ally of the thieves so in the end he should have expected that as soon as he mentioned gangs. ...It's not actually a bad idea though. Well, maybe divisiveness among the graveyard could have bad results. But there wasn't really any getting around that when one already made the choice to drag the other kicking and screaming through death's door. He'd appreciate the friendship and mutual protection. There's a kind of group that does remind him of, although it's probably equally silly. Even so, it occurs so suddenly that it fills him with energy, and he sits up on the futon.]

What if it was like a guild? You know, in games... a guild always stands together and helps its members. They defend them too.

Edited 2018-09-07 02:33 (UTC)

[ Yeah, but the phantom part is really accurate!

Mishima had been kind of 50/50 on whether that tentative offhand idea would actually get any traction, and he's excited enough by Yoosung's apparent interest that he pushes himself up into a sitting position too.

A guild, huh? He'd actually named his guild Phantoms in a game once (because Kaito was taken and Phantom Thieves in English exceeded the character limit), but he'd only ever had one other player join, and that guy was hardly even active. So the simultaneous prospects of having an IRL (IRD?) guild and having people besides him and BlackSun613 in it -- this is something he might actually be able to look forward to here. ]

Yeah! Something like that. So it's not necessarily about stealing hearts or anything, but just-- banding together for the common good!

[That makes them sound soooo heroic. Not that Yoosung wasn't already spinning it that way with his guild talk, but that's the best kind of mood for a guild, if you ask him. As of right now, they're still at only two members, but they should be able to grow it fast.]

Yeah...! That would be the best. And it would give us something to do, too. We can't just say we're a guild, we have to actually do guild stuff, right?

[He's been a guild master before, of an active guild. He knows how this goes down.]

[ "Heroic" is exactly what Mishima wants, unsurprisingly. He may have failed as a hero during the entrance exam, but he can make it up to anyone who shows up here. This can be part of the redemption arc he so desperately needs. ]

Right, absolutely. If we don't actually help people like we say we will, we don't deserve to call ourselves guild leaders.

[ Not that there's much to help with yet, but somehow he feels now like that might not be the case for long, whether he wants it or not. ]

We could probably set up our headquarters in one of the rooms in the main building... I wonder how much is still off limits.

[ Because he kind of likes the idea of commandeering the faculty office as a big fuck you to both Hale and Kamoshida. ]

[Yoosung would be supportive of redemption arcs. Not that he himself needs redemption specifically. His need is simply to grow and move forward - to prove to himself that he can still do that, even with all of the hopeless chains weighing him down. To prove that he deserved the love he received and all of the food he ate and oxygen he breathed when he was alive. He doesn't know if this would really do that for him, but it's a start at least... and if he can help Mishima too, he'll at least feel good about it. Even if their scars never truly heal, he'd like to take his friend's hands and wash away the crime that stains them. Right now he looks happier than he's ever seen him since that fateful Saturday, and that's enough to keep him going.]

Headquarters... We can figure that out this week! It can be our first quest. I'm good for setting places up...

[He used to do that all the time for the RFA party. He's sad that there can never be another party... maybe a group like this is also filling another void that's threatening to become a black hole in his heart.]

[In the weeks leading up to now, Yoosung and Mishima may have often been spotted carrying things in and out of the Faculty Office. However, as of today, it's apparently not the "Faculty Office" anymore... Because that plaque has been removed. In its place, a new, significantly more improvised-looking plaque has been stuck on. Phantom Guild is what it says now. What the hell is a Phantom Guild, you ask? Well... apparently it involves a lot of remodeling, because the inside of the room looks totally different now. The Fayflower blue-and-silver color scheme has been painted over wherever possible in gold and a lively shade of spring green, and the photos of all of the faculty have been taken down. Though, that doesn't mean you don't get to see their faces anymore: the "Guildmasters" have apparently put some photoshop skills to work creating some old timey Wanted Posters out of the pictures that had been there - there's also some darts helpfully nearby. A portion of the bookcase has been cleared out to store a quantity of beer Yoosung requested from Eve, and the filecase has been fully picked through, although that seems to be a recent development - the contents are spread on top of the desk for persual (and even they don't know what's there yet.) Behind the desk are a pair of chairs, because this guild is run by a council - that is, a couple of nerds.

There is a sign for rules on the wall, sparkling and pristine:

1. Be friendly and helpful to guildmates.
2. Reach out to new arrivals and assist victims.
3. No jerks allowed. If you're not sure if you're a jerk we'll be happy to discuss.
4. Share resources and information. We'll aim to hinder F.U.'s agendas whenever possible.
5. Have fun but drink responsibly!
6. The only dead things allowed in guild meetings are the guild members themselves~

There's a sense that there were only going to be five but the last one was mysteriously added at the last minute. Even moreso when the trash can contains drafts of the rules with a bitchier version struck out. Their adherence to the third rule in full swing, such integrity.

As for how you'll find this place? Well, Yoosung and Mishima are putting flyers up in the hall. They're extremely standard college fare, even having a thing to tear off for yourself on the bottom. Normally you would put a phone number on it, but as they have no phones, evidently the only purpose they have is so you can take the paper back to your room and Think About It. The poster shows the logo of a shield wreathed in soul fire, tilted right.]

Stand with us to defend the 'other side.' We are the vengeful spirits that walk in the light! Currently seeking strong allies.
~ Phantom Guild

[this last bit is important, lbr they're both weenies. please dps for them.

Also, after the posters are up they're going back to the guild to examine all of the office files they took out. (They picked right now to do it so they could look cool and productive if anyone walks in.)]

Edited 2018-09-08 22:24 (UTC)

I thought... I thought I was. But... he disagreed. He thought... my work was a danger to everyone I was trying to protect. I... I wasn't willing to accept that. I put everything into them. I... I can't believe that they would ever hurt anyone.

But that... maybe that just proves that he was right...

I was... I went back to Fayflower. I went... to try and stop the program. Or at least stop anyone else from getting hurt. But... it wasn't easy.

And in the end I couldn't even accomplish anything...

...I want to help. But... I made a mistake. My body... the body I had is gone. There's nothing I can do from over here right now...

You're... probably better not expecting too much out of me. I... I've just done nothing but fail...

... Was there really no peaceful way to resolve that? Instead of just trying to destroy your stuff! But he doesn't have a reason to trust you like we did, I guess. I'm sure he acted all by himself! Now the others are down one ally.

[Yoosung groans. That's not good. Vivienne had a lot more internal knowledge than Han... now he's all they have left.]

This is stupid... but at least we're all still here.

[Speaking of knowledge though, he looks up at Vivi then.]

Do you know what this place is?

...it's my fault. I... I felt so awful...

I went to the Wall and... I barely remember what happened. But I can figure... I was affected... and it caused me to throw myself away. I guess... maybe the part of me that it latched onto...

No. I was weak. If... If I can find a way, I'll go back. I'll... I'll try to make it right. But... it's hard. Hard not to just... assume the worst...

I owe you all that much though...

[Right. This isn't the best time to ask questions, now Yoosung feels really bad... did the virus really make her "throw herself away?" That sounds terrible, and she's trying so hard to push herself right now. She's full of regrets, just like he was.]

Hey, hey, it's okay. For now, I think you should rest. We're all trying to do that here. And, for what it's worth I don't think you were weak. Even strong people are affected by the virus, after all.

But um, Vivi... can I give you a hug? [It hurts to see her sad like this. He hopes he can comfort her...]

...yeah. Maybe... maybe just for a little bit it's okay...

[Oh. A hug.]

If... yes... of course. That's fine.

[She's still not good at saying what she means but she'd like to think there's an improvement.]

[Maya's vision was fading, all she could see in her last moments was 2D standing over her, driving that knife into her chest, over and over. The pain was incredible, she cried silently, screamed for help that wouldn't come as things began to blur-

And then everything snapped back into view again. Maya could see clearly that she was still in the cafeteria, with 2D nowhere to be seen. Just her, breathing, able to see, not bleeding.... not dying.

She sinks to the floor, pressed against the kitchen door, and... well, she'll just finish up on her crying while she attempts to process everything that's currently happening.]

[ ...Oh.

Damn it... Even if Mishima hadn't been too close to Maya during the entrance exam, he'd always thought she was nice, and he'd liked her. But getting a chance to see her again like this? This sucks.

He hasn't seen anyone arrive here looking this distressed since Yoosung. Henry and Viral had both apparently taken it fine, and he'd still never even seen that Grantaire guy, aside from, uh, his head. He's let himself get so caught up in setting up their guild over the last few weeks that he's mostly been able to avoid thinking in detail about just how incredibly shitty this all still is. So even though he's been building them up as some kind of awesome welcome committee here to ease everyone's life-to-death transitions, he's not quite ready for this when he actually has someone to welcome. ]

Fey-san?

[ Said very tentatively... Ugh, hopefully she doesn't mistake him for whoever just did this to her. He makes a mental note that they really need to discuss a protocol for how and when to address someone who arrives like this without scaring them and stressing them out even more. ]

["--waiting, for this moment to arrive."

So many memories flow into 2-D's brain. Being kidnapped to a beach for years, eaten by a whale, washed up on shore forced to eat said whale just to survive for more years by himself and eventually moving in with his band in a flat in London. All of his band. Including Noodle, the young girl he thought this entire time had died. She... was alive. She was alive this entire fucking time and the realization hits him like a stone when he jolts up, unable to breathe for a few seconds from the collar that had been so tight against his neck. Choked like a fucking dog on a chain.

Though the fact that he woke up in the university.. confused him. Was it all a dream? Just a horrid, disgusting dream? Stabbing a nice young girl over and over, one of his dear friends slapping him right in the jaw-- and another punching him and stomping on his leg almost hard enough to sprain it.. that was all a dream, right? It had to be.. it was just another bad memory or-- or an assignment to drive them to murder! But he wouldn't-- he would never kill someone. Not after all of that. Not after any of that.

The musician makes his way down the familiar halls, on the lookout for those three previously mentioned. If he found Maya, he'd tell her about how he murdered her in a dream last night and assure her he'd never do that to her. If he found Osomatsu, he'd tell him what a great friend he was and ask if he wanted to go for a pint. If he found Rebecca....

He.. he's not sure what he'd do.

He wanders down the halls, and decides before he goes to check the cafeteria he'd go to the bathroom first. But when he steps in there he sees something that just makes him. Stop.

His eyes... they weren't black anymore. They were how they used to be. How they were supposed to be. And seeing that-- this impossible thing happen right in front of him-- has him staggering out of the men's room and falling in the hall right outside the door. He stays there, on his hands and knees, shaking. Scared. Not sure if anything was even real anymore.]

[Time has passed, enough time that the new - old memories had settled firmly into her brain. Thoughts and feelings she'd felt long ago seemed so new at first, thoughts of her time with Nick, on new cases... meeting new people, solving new cases... losing another member of her family.

These awful people made her forget about her mother. ON TOP OF KILLING HER.

At least, she thinks she is fairly certain she's dead. If everything that night had been just a dream, then it was a thoroughly disturbing, and convincing dream.

And, as luck would have it, she's wandering down a hallway that just so happens to have a certain, tall man walking down it, his back to her. The moment is her's. And dream or not, Maya's allowed to be a little petty about this.

Sneaking up on him would probably be the better plan, but sometimes you just need to charge at someone, full-tilt, yelling at the top of your lungs.]

R1 DEADLAND

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A GUILD IS BORN

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