deadtention | R1 DEADLAND

[As Yoosung takes the cups to the sink, he responds to all of the little ideas with things like "deal" and "sounds good." Avoiding his room was the idea and he trusts that Mishima knows what he's doing with Eve... he glances over when he leans on the counter, smiling faintly. They probably don't really need to form a washing-drying assembly line when it's literally just two mugs, but Yoosung is so emotionally drained and mentally exhausted, it's honestly just kind of nice to have someone staying close. So he goes ahead and passes the first one to him as he works on the second. It's not an experience he's had very often, even before infiltrating Magenta. He was living alone, after all... but he thinks he could get used to hanging out like this.]

[ Room 2 ends up being the one he settles on, once they get to the dorms. He'd gravitated toward 3 by default just because it's kind of his number, what with his name and everything; but the room to its left just... felt right for some reason, and Yoosung seemed glad to take the room next to it, where there was no neighbor on the other side.

Mission: Futon Acquisition is a success, thankfully, and once that's set up, there's... not a whole lot left to do. It's not like he arrived here with a suitcase or anything, so there's really nothing else to set up or unpack. (He'll look into finding some game consoles and stuff later.)

When it's time to hit the hay, Mishima brushes his teeth with what he desperately hopes is a brand new toothbrush by the sink, and flops onto the bed with a sigh. Man. He's really come to appreciate sleep a lot more since he's been dead.

He props himself up on one elbow after a moment to look over toward the futon. ]

Is that comfortable enough?

[~~please imagine the obligatory Yoosung toothbrush CG at the same time.~~ Yoosung rolls over on the futon to glance back. He finds it neither too hard nor too soft, but there's not tons of floor space, so he's basically lying parallel to the bed on the futon stretched beneath it.]

Well, I think as long as you don't sleepwalk I'm good... I might have to count some sheep though.

[It's still an entirely different environment. And a bigger obstacle, he's still got a lot on his mind. ...Maybe not different things. But things that are a lot. Death is heavy.]

Can I ask... what you did on the first night after you died?

[ It doesn't escape his notice how goofy that question would sound in any other context, but he's not going to comment on that right now.

He furrows his brow slightly, shifting onto his side as he thinks back to it. There hadn't been anyone here -- or there, wherever they were -- to welcome them at the time. They'd just been dropped into this place with no explanation. (There had been pancakes, though. That part was kind of weird.) ]

Mm... I think I just stared at the ceiling, honestly. I'm pretty sure it was at least a day before I actually managed to get to sleep.

[ It's hard when all of your regrets keep playing in an endless loop in your mind. ]

...Once I finally did, I didn't really do a whole lot else. I always wanted to hurry up and finish the day, but there wasn't usually anything to look forward to the next day either, so it was just... kind of a cycle of rushing from one day to the next with no end goal.

[ It was the opposite of high school in that sense. As a first year back home, he'd always stayed up way later than he should have because he'd dreaded the arrival of another day, and wanted to put it off for as long as possible. ]

[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.]

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.]

And I think I'm pretty good at planning and management and stuff.

[ He runs his whole website by himself, after all, and you should have seen his packing list for Hawaii. ]

So yeah, starting tomorrow! [ He closes his fist in a triumphant yes! motion. ] Let's do it!

[ When he lies back down, there's excitement in the way he curls up on his side and clutches the pillow beneath his head. It really has been a while since he's actually had a reason to want to wake up the next day. It's been since-- since before that motive during the entrance exam, he's pretty sure.

God, though, this day has really been full of emotional whiplash, he thinks, as he exhales slowly. It's been exhausting, even if he's ending it on a positive and energized note -- which still feels surreal after his weeks in a haze of depression -- and his already tired eyes start getting heavy not too long after his head hits the pillow.

...But first, after an extended moment of thought and quiet... it seems like a reasonable enough time to ask this. ]

Hey, um, before I forget this in the morning... if we're forming a guild together and having a kind of sleepover like this, you... can call me by my given name if you want to.

[ Sometimes he gets a little tired of just being Mishima, and being around Aiden here has reminded him that it's actually kind of nice to hear his own name in conversation again. ]

[It really is fairly remarkable that they've managed to cheer up this much... Yoosung didn't manage to build up this much energy even once throughout the summer and his time with the 'new class.' Somehow they both just got on a strong wavelength, though. Sure, they'd gotten along just fine before this, but this definitely feels like their friendship has become stronger. After nodding his confirmation once and for all, it does seem like a good time to lie back down and get to that tomorrow they can suddenly look forward to. He's still far from falling asleep when Mishima speaks up again, so he opens his eyes. Ah... permission to be on first-name basis, huh? They really did move on to the next branch. Even so, he's still a little flattered to receive it. He's never even heard Akira call him that, so... ...well, what else is there to do but try it on for size.]

So... Yuuki...? [He props his chin on his hand, thoughtfully looking up toward the bed. Does he like hearing him say his name or is it weird after all? It's a little different for Yoosung in fact... he calls all of his best friends by their honorifics, since they're usually older than him. But this isn't bad by any means.] Yeah. I can do that if you like!

Edited (let's just make this even more positive :3) 2018-09-10 04:53 (UTC)

[ The rapid shift in mood is slightly less remarkable for Mishima if only because he's always been good at compartmentalization; if he has something productive to focus all of his energy on and take pride in, he can box up his trauma and store it away in the closet of an old, weaker version of himself that he can pretend doesn't exist anymore. It's how he'd managed to pull off an outward personality 180 when he'd first devoted himself to the Phantom Thieves, so with something similar that he can start to focus on now...

Then again, with friends he can (apparently) more readily open up to, maybe he won't need to rely on that so much this time.

...Yeah, it does feel pretty nice hearing his name like that, and it makes him smile as he gives a slight horizontal nod of approval.

(Kurusu hadn't ever called him that, even though Mishima still thought of him as his best friend. Which, if he thinks about it, is maybe kind of weird, but also probably mostly his own fault, given that he still always thinks of him as Kurusu rather than Akira himself.) ]

Yeah! I'd like that. Thanks.

[Well, perhaps there's a certain businesslike veneer to be had when one is also one's best friend's "Producer." Yoosung and Yuuki don't have that kind of pretense between them, but they're also still relatively new friends who have not had a chance to build a roleplaying scenario. Until Now. And this one includes first-name basis.]

It's fine for me too, obviously... [Mishima may have even already called him by his first name? He can't remember, but everyone here does it. And he is used to it, again, because he is such a maknae. But he might as well put it out there all the same. Or an escalation?] Unless you want to call me some nickname. I'm pretty easygoing.

[There's no urgency in the delivery there, though. This is good enough for now to him, so after returning the smile with one of his own, he lies his head back down on the pillow.]

Good night, Yuuki.

R1 DEADLAND

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