cetana | [OPEN] clever titles are for squares

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[OPEN] clever titles are for squares

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. ]

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[ rei allows herself to be dragged away, just following along. she'll sit wherever kido takes her. having someone take charge is a bit comforting in its own way. she doesn't have to think right now. ]

... sorry. I'm not feeling so good right now...

[ It's a park bench that Kido guides Rei over to, backs to the park where some kids are playing around, laughing and screaming as the background noise that doesn't quite fit the mood, but she has Rei sit down and then Kido sits next to her instead of across from her, as somebody to lean on. ]

Do you feel sick, or tired? Everything that happened back there was... a lot... so your body might just be coming down from all the stress. If you want to sleep a bit, that might help too.

[ That sort of unwell is understandable, and Kido feels it too- drained and shaken and trying to cling to normalcy to rid herself of the uneasy feeling. It's a sort of unwell that she might be able to help more with, rather than Rei having food poisoning because she's eating orange peels. ]

[ the noise of the park doesn't bother rei that much. in fact, it's almost far away. in this depressing trance, everything seems further away. hm... she hasn't felt like this in a long time, perhaps not since she was known as niko. ]

I... [ she doesn't know how to reply to kido at first. she doesn't want to lie about how she feels but she also doesn't want to concern her. ] I'm not sick or tired... I just don't feel very good.

[ which isn't very helpful or specific. ]

[ It really isn't, not giving Kido anything to go off of in terms of needing sleep or medicine. It doesn't seem serious enough to take her to the hospital for a check-up either, and people having off days is normal anyways. So she just peels the orange and hands the slices over to Rei; sometimes people feel crummy because they're hungry or thirsty, and maybe this will help. ]

Do you want me to stay with you, or do you want to go back home? ...Where are you staying, actually?

[ Please don't be the woods. Please don't be the haunted inn. Please don't be some abandoned alleyway. ]

[ she takes the peeled orange slices from kido but she just holds them in her hands rather than shoving them into her mouth immediately. something really does seem to be off, hm... ]

In the inn.

[ the haunted inn 8) she already screamed her poor heart out once. come with her, kido ]

[ No!!!!! ]

The inn? The one people say is haunted? Maybe you shouldn't live there anymore, in case something happens...

[ What if Rei feeling unwell is the result of a curse? Oh my god, it's a curse, Rei is cursed and Kido is internally screaming. ]

I wish I could make enough money to get a place of my own, and then we could stay together.

[ kido is going to have a heart attack one day and it's going to be a result of all these haunted places and rumours. ]

M-Mmhm... I didn't know where else to go.

[ she heard the haunted rumours!! she knows about them!! but also where would she stay :( none of the npcs have offered her a nice place to stay so far but that's also because she mostly hangs around the school to help out with the upcoming festivals and the students can't offer her any place to crash. ]

Making enough money... if we put our money together, would we be able to stay somewhere together?

[ for some reason, that hasn't really occurred to rei. granted, she doesn't have a lot of life experience in knowing about things like rent or finding a place. ]

[ Kido, screaming when she learns that the festival is by the lake and everybody who touches the water will die or something ]

Yeah, the more people who share a home, the less it will cost per person. The company is nice too...

[ Not that she doesn't enjoy the company of her host family, but she really only sees the kids, and having to deal with 4-6 year olds is like having to deal with Terry and Hibiki and Leon all day and maybe she's tired. ]

Do you think you want to live together with me? I'll look into it some more.

[ the true enemy of the game is actually kido. ghosts and curses can't kill everyone if she kills them first. ]

Mmhm, that sounds really nice. [ good job, kido, you actually got rei to smile since terry died on her. ] I never got to live with friends before. It sounds like a lot of fun, being able to see your friends every day.

[ until you notice that one of them has a terrible little habit that drives you crazy like rei would have food hidden everywhere. you won't be able to open a book without a small thin packet of gum or something slipping out. ]

[ Yeah...... Kido who isn't even planning on summoning the NPCs because she's scared, but in the end maybe she was the smartest one of them all for refusing to do it ]

...Yeah, it's a lot of fun. [ And it's really nice seeing Rei smile again, a relief. ] It becomes a little like family, when you live together like that.

[ And when you're family, you love each other even if you bully the hell out of each other. I was rereading the first novel for canon review and both Kido and Kano's favorite pastimes was picking on Mary, they were relentless. ]

[ the npcs arrive and she looks at everyone and is like "this is why you should listen to me. you've summoned them so they're your responsibility, not mine". ]

A family...? [ gasp... ] Does that mean you'd be like my sister?

[ rei actually having a family who cares about her, gasp... also lmfao poor mary. kido and kano are nightmares!!!! maybe they deserved to die 2938292 times ]

[ A sister... Kido smiles at that, and pats Rei on the head. She has no idea how old Rei is, because Mary was ??? hundred years old and she can't assume things anymore. ]

Yep. We'll be sisters.

[ gasp........ that suddenly changes rei's entire mood. lmfao fuck off, terry. kido is the only thing that matters now. ]

We'll be sisters! [ her smile turns into a big grin now. ] Then... it'd be Kido-oneechan? Big sister? Big sis Kido?

[ rei just naturally assumes that she's younger. kido is taller and stronger and way more capable than she is so that means she's older. ]

[ asdfljkh fuck off terry, only sisters matter now

but ahhhhh... It makes Kido really happy to hear it too, but also embarrassed, and anxious, and she ducks her reddening face so she can try to hide it in the collar of her jacket. ]

"Neechan" is okay...

[ It comes out as a whisper. Kido had two older sisters in her life, both of them kind and strong and caring, that she doesn't know if she can ever measure up to them. ]

[ in rei's eyes, kido is already king and strong and caring and a great big sister. she can't do anything wrong like terry did. ]

Okay, neechan!

[ you can practically see the flowers and sunshine that are beaming out of her. she's just so happy that she can have someone!! she can call!! family!!! ]

I'll make sure to work really hard so we can live somewhere and eat a lot of delicious things together!

[ Kido might not do anything wrong like Terry did but she might die because of how happy Rei looks. It's been a while since she had a happy family, instead of one that's just trying to get through the day by day and hang out when they can. This warmth is probably what Ayano felt for all of them, however annoying they all were. It's probably what Rin felt for her, however annoying she was. The sort of warmth where you would do anything to keep your family happy and together ]

Mmhm. I'll work hard too, Rei.

[ rei never got to experience an actual healthy and happy family, biological or found. the closest that she ever got to one was with zen, but she doesn't really categorize him as family so to think that she can have an older sister!! it's very exciting to her. she's absolutely going to wear out the "neechan" name. ]

[ she nods her head very excitingly.

Do you want to go back to the inn with me?

[ since, you know, kido offered a bit earlier to stay with her and maybe staying at home is better than out in this heat. ]

Uh.

[ She loves Rei but does she love Rei enough to step foot in the inn? ]

I'm running some errands today, but maybe I can come over some other time.

[ She made up the errands just now, but maybe coming over doesn't have to be a lie— she loves Rei enough that she will go to the inn one time only and that's to save Rei and drag her out of it when they have another non-haunted place they can call their own. ]

What kind of errands?

[ so she'd just let rei go back to the haunted inn on her own :( i see how it is ]

[ look....... Hibiki presumably still lives there, so he won't let any harm come to her or Kido will kill him and Cetana will have to become a murdergame.

But okay, crap, she has to make up errands. Something normal but time sensitive... ]

I'm... in charge of dinner tonight, so I have to buy the ingredients for that.

[ card just finished a murdergame and in her bloodlust for more deaths, she has converted cetana into one. i accept. ]

Do you need any help? I can help you buy the ingredients.

[ this is what happens when you lie, kido. you have to live with it. let's go buy some ingredients. ]

[ I didn't get to kill anybody in my murdergame!! But I wrote in a tag that if Minato was chosen as the week's murderer, he would have taken down as many people as he could with him and give the game a 20 body trial so maybe it was for the best he died first. Death revival mechanics here means he can kill as much as he wants (: ]

Uh... [ haha... ] Alright. I haven't decided what to make yet, so we can think of that together, and pick out the ingredients.

[ It's fine? It's fine. This is leaps and bounds better than seeing Rei just moping around all lifeless like she's one of the apathy syndrome victims, so Kido will try to stretch this time our for her as long as she can. ]

[ i cannot wait for minato to get petty and upset because someone thought his clown outfit was hideous so he chose to crash the train while everyone was in it. ]

Okay.

[ she nods. she'll get up from the park bench. she grabs parts of the cape to bundle up in one of her hands since, well, it's huge on her and she should try to avoid tripping. she then extends out the other hand towards kido. ]

I don't know how to cook, but I'm really good at flavours and picking out food!

[ Everybody experiences apathy syndrome that day as Minato destroys all the Personas...

Everybody except Rei because she's too Good to die and Kido because she's smart and stayed home. She takes Rei's hand in hers, feeling a little childish like this, but happy too. I wanted to say she can't remember the last time she held anybody's hand, but she definitely does remember and the thought embarrasses her for other reasons, so she kicks that out of her mind and smiles at Rei instead. ]

Flavors are one of the most important parts of a meal, so I'll be happy to have your help.

[ The other important part is keeping things edible, which Kido's got covered. They're a great team. ]

Eheh, I'll try to help as best as I can.

[ share that thought, kido!!! embrace your inner embarrassment, but rei will lightly swing their hands as they walk. ]

What's your favourite flavour?

[ she's asking for no particular reason asides from finding out so then she can make sure to always get kido a bunch of snacks with that flavour ]

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