[OPEN] clever titles are for squares

[flowerclips]

ɪ. ʟᴀᴛᴇ ᴀᴛ ɴɪɢʜᴛ

[ it's a little after one in the morning when rei is back on the streets. coming from the direction of the hospital, her shoulders are hung low, her head is cast downwards, and her steps are slow. it's as if she's just simply dragging herself along. perhaps it wouldn't be anything to be concerned about. after all, maybe it was just a long night in the dungeon. ]

[ ... maybe that would have been the case if she wasn't covered in dried blood. ]

[ her shirt and skirt are ruined with a dark crimson colour and there's a very unfortunate small blood splatter across her face (cover your mouth when you cough, terry...). whether or not the blood bothers her, it's not like she can do much about it right now. she just continues to walk down the street, almost as if in some sort of trance. she doesn't pay attention to where she's heading and it's honestly more than likely that any of the following would happen: ]

[ a: she walks straight into a pole. ]
[ b: she walks straight into a person (you). ]
[ c: she walks right into the forest because she's not paying attention and i guess i'll have a bear eat her or something. ]

ɪɪ. ᴇᴀʀʟʏ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ

[ the next morning, rei isn't doing much better. she has thrown out her clothes so she's back to wearing her original school uniform, but she has thrown on a black and tattered cape over herself, though. hm. well, whatever she's happy with. ]

[ she's still in a trance, though, so the following will happen again: ]

[ a: she walks into a person (you) (again).
[ b: she walks right into a food stand and well, i guess there goes 'em apples and oranges all over the floor. she's already getting yelled at so help. ]
[ c: courtesy of card, all 'em apples and oranges actually go into rei's face later on in the day. a kind npc has given her an orange but she's so tired and not really paying attention that she just bites down onto it like an apple and i guess she's eating the skin of the orange and getting orange juice everywhere. thanks, card. ]
[ d: she actually trips and falls flat on her face because the owner of the cape was actually 30cm taller than her so, of course, it's much longer on her. she falls quite heavily onto the floor and well, everything sucks. this sucks. life sucks!! ]

ɪɪɪ. ᴛɪʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴊᴜʟʏ

[ over the course of the next week or so, rei hovers near the entrance of the dungeon but she doesn't actually go in. she looks extremely uneasy and just hovers around. when she spots someone trying to go through the front entrance, she walks on over and grabs them by their sleeve or end of their shirt. ]

... please don't go in.

[ it's a small and sad plead. ]

ɪᴠ. ᴛʜɪs ɪs ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟʟʏ ᴊᴜsᴛ ᴀ ᴄᴀᴛᴄʜ-ᴀʟʟ

[ if you want to thread anything else with rei (backdated or slightly forwarddated) or with kokichi, just lmk and i will be there. this is literally just a post for me to throw threads into because it'd be so much easier for me to track, laughs. ]

Comments

iii

[laconism]

[The night after Kokichi forces Red to go take a rest, he's back at the dungeon entrance with Pikachu and Blastoise. Even though he had spent the majority of the day sleeping, he probably needs another day or two of rest to truly be back at full strength but does he care? Nah, so he's back here whether Kokichi likes it or not.

But before he can enter the dungeon, he's suddenly stopped by a hand grabbing his sleeve. He looks back to see who the hand belongs to, and soon enough Rei has three pairs of eyes staring curiously at her.]

...Why not?

[flowerclips]

[ imagine kokichi just appearing out of nowhere to dropkick red in the face. ]

It's not safe... you might get really hurt.

[ rei has a tight grip on red's sleeve and she stares at him and his pokemon. she would normally ask what they are, but she's more focused on trying to convince him to stay out of the dungeon. ]

[laconism]

[Airi would be so proud of him.

Red frowns. It makes sense that such a young girl would be afraid of a place like this and would worry about something like that, but it doesn't change his own burning desire to get back to the Daitengu's chamber as soon as possible. Fighting with the Daitengu reminds him of the intense battles he's had with various legendary Pokémon. It's exciting, plus he can't sit back and do nothing while so many others are also working themselves to their limits to take the boss down. The only reason he even rested as long as he did is because it's not possible to enter the dungeon outside of Lockdown hour.]

I'll be fine.

[He attempts to gently pry her hand off of his sleeve.]

[flowerclips]

[ airi learns how to start saying 'hewwo' and kokichi learns how to dropkick. it's wonderful. what would red teach kokichi and what would kokichi teach red, i wonder ]

N-No! You can't go in! It's too dangerous!

[ she won't let go of red's sleeve that easily. she holds onto it with both of her tiny hands. ]

ii.c.... I guess I'll take responsibility

[reveilation]

[ Moping and wandering and all that isn't all that strange to Kido, who makes a habit of that sort of thing too, but although she's been watching Rei go about her business for a while, she draws the line at Rei eating the orange peel.

She lowers the orange from Rei's mouth before she can take another bite, suddenly appearing as if she'd been standing there all along and Rei was just too out of it to notice. ]

Hey, let me peel that for you.

[flowerclips]

Ah, Kido-chan...

[ she just looks up at kido and at the orange that was taken away from it. it has a very distinctive bite mark in it. ]

Um, it's okay. Eating orange skins means that you'd get tough skin as well...

[ normally, there would probably be an exclamation mark at the end of that sentence to show off her energy but energy isn't something she has right now. ]

[reveilation]

[ She's... not quite sure that's how it works, but maybe? If you can get past the bitterness without crying, maybe that'll toughen you up and you won't cry about other things. Maybe she shouldn't be entertaining this train of thought, actually. ]

It can't be too tasty like this, though. Why don't you eat the fruit first, and I can save the rind and make candied orange peels? Come on, let's find somewhere to sit...

[ Though, with the way Rei looks, Kido goes ahead and takes her hand instead of offering it and waiting for Rei to respond. ]

i:b

[trabryu]

[ Like a fallen warrior, Mondo walks out of the school, defeated. The battles he had with the Shadows have never been this tough before. He feels completely powerless ー none of his attacks seemed to be effective against the Daitengu. He too, is dazed enough not to notice someone walking on his direction, until there is a soft bump to his chest.

Slowly, he looks down, finding-- ]

Rei...? You okay?

[ He takes a step back, bending down so he can have a good look at her. Blood. There's blood all over her. The sight freezes Mondo on the spot, but not for long. ]

Rei?! What happened?! [ The Daitengu? Did she go in there alone and got hurt? ] We need to get ya fixed up! Let's go to the hospital!!

[ Wait... the direction she came from... isn't it the hospital? ]

[flowerclips]

[ her responses and reflexes are slow. when she bumps into mondo, she doesn't pull back right away. it's mondo's single step back that separates the two and she just looks up at him with tired eyes. ]

Oh, Mo-chan...

[ she's lacking that bounce and energy that's normally present in her voice. she shakes her head. ]

It's-- it's okay. I'm all right. I'm not hurt.

[trabryu]

[ He calms down a little when Rei says that she's not hurt, but all these blood on her can only mean someone else is. She's obviously out of it ー something real bad must have gone down back there. He thumbs over her bloodied cheek, though dry, it smears his finger a little still. ]

Rei...

[ There are many things that he logically knows they need to do. Get her cleaned up, get her some warm drink, get her somewhere comfortable and safe to rest, and some more--

but he doesn't. He lets himself do what he feels like the most important thing to do this moment.

He puts his palm over the back of her head, and pulls her close to his chest. ]

ii:a

[rabbeats]

[ Hibiki happens to see her first and waves his hand at her, but it seems like Rei didn't notice and just keeps moving forward until they bump into each other instead of dodging her. ]

Rei-chan?

[ This cape...is this her emo phase? It could be. ]

Perfect timing, I was looking for a place to eat breakfast.

[flowerclips]

[ even after hibiki bumps right into her, she takes a moment to register his presence and just who he is. she stands there dazed and doesn't even raise her head until a full second later. ]

Oh, Hibiki-kun...

[ there's a lack of energy behind her words. they don't sound forced, but it sounds as if she's talking just because she has to say something and not stand there silently. normally, she would be ecstatic at the thought about getting food, especially with a friend, but that doesn't sound like anything she has the energy for. ]

Mm... I hope you have a good breakfast.

[rabbeats]

[ This is concerning. It's supposed to be a serious thread but I'm still going to pretend that Bikini is his name. Well, she could've already eaten something and that would make sense, but it shouldn't hurt to make sure. ]

What about you? It can be a second breakfast if you already ate.

ii-d

[16lab]

[ Oh, dear. RO walks up to Rei when she sees her trip and fall over that cape. That cape is a health hazard now. RO deems it so. Anyway, she doesn't see Rei getting back up, so she'll stand in silence for a second or two before picking her up quite easily. Up you go, little flower girl. ]

Are you hurt anywhere...?

[flowerclips]

[ when rei falls, she doesn't have the power to push herself up. she stays on the floor for longer than she should and it's only because of ro that she's back on her feet. ]

Thank you...

[ she bows her head a bit but it's very much without any energy. she looks down at herself as if to get any confirmation whether or not she's hurt. ]

No, I'm okay. I don't think I'm hurt anywhere.

[16lab]

You're dragging the cape... Would you like to have it hemmed? It looks a bit too big for your size.

[ Maybe there's an alteration service here or something... Well, RO lets Rei down so that her feet can touch the ground. ]

At the very least, would you like a clothespin?

iv lets get some happiness up in here by the person who caused rei the most misery

[overstrain]

[ Terry has been feeling better by the next day, but mostly because he's on so many painkillers. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he's still awake despite how much he took because of his stupid endurance levels and for his conscience wanting to stay awake so much so that he doesn't miss Rei coming. He's still bedridden as before, since it's only been one day after all.

He's gotten himself a piece of string and he's doing something like a single player cat's cradle with it--making an Eiffel Tower shape by biting on the top point and spreading the figure as its base. So this is the reason why Terry has a string in his mouth when Rei comes in, in which he perks his head up to greet her, along with a muffled "hi". ]

[flowerclips]

[ after seeing terry the previous day and ensuring that he's awake and alive, rei's mood has improved greatly. she's still paranoid and nervous that anyone who goes into the dungeon might end up like him and she certainly will throw a fit if terry goes back in, but asides from that, she has found the missing energy that disappeared earlier. there's a small smile on her face when she opens the door of his room and there are a few bags in her hands. ]

What are you doing?

[ she closes the door behind and walks in, looking at the string in his mouth. ]

[overstrain]

[ Terry carefully moves the tower so that a single hand can hold the base of the tower and his other hand can hold the top point of the tower. ]

Making an Eiffel Tower from cat's cradle. It's something I thought about doing since I'm stuck here by myself.

[ He holds it in plain view so that it's easy for Rei to see. It looks a bit elaborate... as much as strings can get anyway. ]

How is it?

Ib

[evoltlution]

[Rei, you're always aiming to give him a heart attack, huh? After that first time, getting stuck in the dungeon when lockdown ended, Killua's been much more careful about leaving on time.

It's not a surprise to run into another persona user on the way out now, though it's usually not quite so literal. Killua bites back annoyed words when he sees who it is, steadying her instead.]

You again. It's important to train in there, but you're not supposed to overdo it either.

[And though the darkness around them making it hard to spot the blood stains immediately, Killua's nose is still sharp enough to catch the sharp tang of blood.] Oy! Are you injured?

[flowerclips]

[ rei is still out of it by the time she bumps into killua. she doesn't even manage to get out a single word before he asks if she's injured or not. even then, it takes her a second to process his words and she looks down at her clothes. ]

Oh...

[ right, she's still covered in terry's blood. her clothes are soaked in it and she forgets that there are still splatters across her face. ]

No, I'm okay. Sorry for bumping into you.

[evoltlution]

[Ohhhh no you don't, Rei. Killua's hand lands on her shoulder before she can escape.]

Don't even try to pull that on me. What happened?

[There's no way letting her go off on her own would be a good idea.]

8/5, WILDCARD it's time for light novel adventures with kokichi

[overstrain]

[ The school festival is over, and after some info extracting and snooping around, he has the gist of what the shady fortune teller was talking about. Well, today's the day to take a break from all that. As if to take shelter from the blistering heat, Terry steps inside a bookstore and is seeing which books he should read. He's not much of an avid reader, but if there's something interesting, he'll definitely take it.

He's been here for a while now... probably two hours. He doesn't want to leave because the bookstore actually has AC and he can sort through so many books. He can just do that at the library, yeah, but there's something about being at the bookstore that makes him a lot more comfortable.

He's seen some weird titles like the following:

"Sew It Up! Take It Off? Change!! My Girlfriend Failed Her High School Debut and Became a Shut-In, So I Decided to Coordinate Her Youth"
"Do You Like Your Mom? Her Normal Attack is Two Attacks at Full Power"
"My Girlfriend's No Otaku, But She Sure is Interested in My Erotic Games......"

(these are legit titles btw)

Terry immediately closes the last book and puts it back on the shelf. ISN'T THIS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE R18 SECTION?! Is there even a R18 section?! He's not going to dwell on that for too long and picks out the next random book from the shelf.

"I Vicariously Live With My Little Sister's Blood Inside Me"

Terry has the deadest eyes in the world right now. ]

[decipere]

[ the bookstore isn't a place that kokichi finds himself at very often. there aren't a lot of books that he wants to buy and when there is something that he wants to read, he borrows things from the library and/or stays there. however, he decides to check out the store since he has some free time and maybe they'll have books that the library can't provide, so it doesn't hurt. ]

[ he enters the store quietly and has been going through the tight hallways. he doesn't find anything except for a sketchbook that was put in the clearance bin so he just grabs that for now. as he makes his way through the last hallway, look who he finds... with a lewd book in his hands... ]

I-It's the pervert again...!!

[ no, he was not quiet at all when he yelled that out. ]

[overstrain]

[ With that, he immediately shoves the book back to the shelf and runs up to put his hand over Kokichi's mouth. IT'S NOT LIKE HE'S DOING ANYTHING WRONG--so why does he feel like he needs to cover it up?? It sure doesn't help the misunderstanding. Nope. Not at all. ]

Be quiet! [ He's quietly hissing. ] You're going to bother people!