[OPEN] 11/25 fuck timelines x2

[windbreakers]

ɪ. ᴛʜᴀɴᴋs, ᴋᴀɴᴏ :/

[ Seto was able to navigate to the town rather easily, knowing to follow the path out of the castle and what to avoid in the forest. For once, his immense knowledge of navigating through dense woods helps him out. At this moment, there are a lot of things that are racing through his mind, but he tries to stay as calm and collected as possible. It works as he doesn't look like he's freaking out, but that all ends when he's in town and a box of crickets falls on his head. ]

[ A million crickets jump out and wreck Seto's collectiveness immediately. ]

Daaahh--!! Wh-- What is this--?!

[ He has crickets in his hair. He has crickets in his clothes. He has crickets on his face. And if you're one of the unfortunate ones who thought going for a stroll was a great idea, well... too bad, you're dragged into the cricket apocalypse. If you're not joining then well, Seto will just have to knock into you and transfer his couple thousand crickets onto you instead since he's panicking. ]

ɪɪ. ʜᴇ's ɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴀ ᴄʀɪᴄᴋᴇᴛ ꜰᴀʀᴍ ꜰᴏʀᴇᴠᴇʀ

[ ... he wasn't able to get all the crickets out of his jumpsuit. ]

[ He at least thinks that there aren't any inside his clothes and scurrying around his body, but there are still a few on his shoulders, a couple in his hood, and probably a loving family in his pockets. He really needs to find a place where he can take off all of his clothes and give them a good shake. It's one thing to look at bugs, admiring and learning things about them, but it's another to have them crawling all over you... ]

[ So, here's the boring prompt where Seto just walks around town while a cricket occasionally jumps out of his clothes. He will wave down a person when he sees one, approaching but maybe staying a step away because no one else should suffer the crickets... ]

Excuse me! Do you know where the nearest restroom is?

ɪɪɪ. ʙʟᴇss ᴅᴀɴɪ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴀᴄʜɪᴋᴏ ɪᴅᴇᴀ

[ In Seto's desperate wish that he could get rid of these bugs, his hand brushed against the omamori in his pocket and summoned his Persona, Hachiko. However, being distracted by swatting away a cricket that jumped on his face, he doesn't notice that he summoned the large Akita dog that suddenly appears next to him. In fact, the Persona doesn't look any different from a regular dog so there's no reason to think otherwise. So, when Seto notices that an Akita somehow snuck its way next to his side, he's relieved to have something to distract him from his horrible morning. ]

[ He bends down and immediately begins to pet Hachiko on the head, about to ask if it's lost, when the Persona, knowing why it's been summoned, decides to eat the two crickets on Seto's shoulder... then proceeds to eat every other cricket that Seto left behind in his trail. Immediately, Seto takes this seemingly stray dog and tries to open its mouth, but anyone with any experience with animals knows that when you want them to spit something out, they just close their mouth even harder... ]

C-C'mon, spit it out!

[ It's okay if dogs eat some bugs, but Seto has no idea what kind of crickets these are, so it's best not to risk it. So yeah, there's just some dude wrestling with a dog, but since it's a Persona, the townspeople just see some weird kid wrestling with himself... ]

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[reveilation]

[ It's sad how used Kido's gotten to walking to the castle and hearing screaming in the near distance. The voice seems familiar, but it's hard to tell when it's screaming, so she steps off the path to see what's up— Seto collides into her, a cricket jumps at Kido's face, and then she clocks Seto on the side of the head in retaliation because it's clearly his fault.

You don't run around when you're covered in bugs!! You set yourself on fire and be a sacrifice to save us all. ]

[windbreakers]

[ This is indeed Seto's fault. He shouldn't have come out to this town. He should have just lived in the woods like he used to, take those fun night sleepovers in the wilderness, instead of trying to find civilization. He gets knocked out in a single punch because while he's big, he's no match for Kido's raging fist. Already unsteady on his feet, he falls backwards and lands sharply on his back. He admits defeat. Sorry, everyone on the other side, he knows he said that he'd live and fight, but maybe this is the end for him... ]

Ow...

[ ... he just lies there for a few seconds because he's seeing stars from the punch and there are just crickets jumping all over his face. They jump towards Kido as well. Accept them. ]

[reveilation]

[ Kido will absolutely not accept them. She already has Nekogami out to set whatever crickets jump on him on fire, while trying to pounce on whatever's on the ground without setting the entire forest ablaze. Kido, though, looks shocked when she sees Seto, and then drops to her knees beside him to grip him by the shoulders and give him a hard shake. Do not do this to somebody with a possible concussion. ]

Seto! It's you, right? Pull yourself together!

[windbreakers]

[ Absolutely do not do this to somebody with a possible concussion because the world is now shaking and ah, he's starting to hear Kido's voice. That's not possible... he's probably just imagining things because everything hurts and it's been a long while since he got knocked on the head like that. ]

P-Please stop shaking me--

[ He manages to weakly get out while a cricket just sits on his forehead, miraculously staying on. ]

[reveilation]

[ She stops shaking him long enough to slap Seto on the forehead to kill the cricket. It hops away and she misses. ]

[windbreakers]

[ What is this abuse... Now he just sits there with his hands on his face. Everything hurts and he'd like to go back home, please. ]

[reveilation]

[ Sorry. Don't move. That's perfect; protect your face while Kido attempt and fails to slap the other crickets off Seto's face and arms and chest. ]

[windbreakers]

[ Mary would never treat him like this. ]

S-Stop it already--!

[ holy shit just let seto sit here in his cricket filth because it's better than being slapped ]

[reveilation]

[ Too bad this is who Seto gets.

But at least Kido listens this time and sits back on her heels; she won't slap him anymore, but if a cricket jumps at her, she won't hesitate flinging it back in his face. ]

You're the same as ever...

[ a wuss ]

I missed you.

[windbreakers]

[ This is very distressing. He doesn't know where he is, Mary isn't with him, crickets rained on him, and now this stranger is abusing him. He lets out a sigh of relief when it seems like the barrage of attacks are over, but he freezes when he hears that voice. He didn't notice at first, too wrapped up in his own panic and pain, but now it's clear as day. ]

--Kido...?

[ He lowers his hands and just... stares at her. Now, that's a face he didn't think he'd see again. Maybe a phone call, yeah, through Momo's phone, but not in-person. He just freezes and does nothing while crickets continue to jump around, not really caring about reunions or anything like that. ]

[reveilation]

[ The chirping crickets in the silence would have been funny, if she weren't automatically exhausted seeing the blank look on Seto's face. Maybe she accidentally hit him too hard on the head. Maybe Saeru shot Seto in the head after shooting Kido in the chest; there are unlimited possibilities. ]

Yeah, it's me. Did... everything turn out okay, back home?

[windbreakers]

[ Did everything turn out okay? That's a difficult question to answer. Everyone died. It seems like they're doing okay in the Kagerou Daze, at least based on that one phone call, lively and okay, but the fact is that they're still dead. Even with the rewrite that they're going to do, the plan still failed, so he doesn't know how to answer her properly. He's indecisive about it and he wants to hug her, apologize again, cry, but he holds it back. He figures that he should start with the "good news" first. ]

Mary and Hibaya are alive and well. I... I've been looking after Mary.

[reveilation]

[ There's nine people in their gang, so three out of nine... Maybe they're not all dead, and she's just being pessimistic, but with how Seto phrases it and who he's leaving out... ]

What about Kano?

[ Who cares about Shintarou and whoever else? There's only one other person unaccounted for that she's never heard from. ]

[windbreakers]

[ He was really hoping that she wouldn't ask about the others. He was hoping that she would just assume from the way he said it so he wouldn't have to break the news to her. A cowardly way of handling it, but it's hard to verbalize that Kano died in that last battle. ]

... he's... not around.

[ He can't bring himself to say "dead". He figures that this is a terrible place to leave off on, so he'll expand. ]

But he's in the Kagerou Daze, with you and everyone else. You all sounded fine.

[reveilation]

[ She'd like to think that not being around meant that Kano chickened out and skipped town, but she can't decide if that's better or worse than being in the Kagerou Daze— with her, and everybody but the three of them left. They have to die in pairs and the math works out.

She breathes out, sitting back on her heels. ]

So it was mission failed in the end, huh...

[ But it's like what they suspected; people stuck in the Kagerou Daze are just that: stuck. There could still be a way to bring people out. She thought there was nothing left for her back home but she's wrong. She can still ditch Hirajiro and everybody in it to go home. ]

It must've been tough being left behind.

[windbreakers]

[ Even after what he told her, she's still thinking about him? Kido has always been kind, even if she had this habit of punching and kicking people... it only makes him feel more guilty. ]

I-- I'm sorry. If I was a little bit stronger, maybe I could have done something...

[reveilation]

Like what? Stop a bullet with your bare hands?

[ The guy had a gun and Kido has no illusions about any of them being able to stop something like that. ...Maybe Seto if hE USED HIS EYE ABILITY TO READ THE SNAKE'S MIND but it's too late too berate him for that. ]

It's not over yet. We'll figure something out, and once we get you back, you and Mary and Hibiya are still there.

[ She can only do this when they're both sitting and Seto isn't towering over her, so she reaches up to pat him on the head. Probably nobody's done this since Ayano was around, but Terry and Toki like it, while Jiro hates it, so the odds are still good that it'll calm Seto down.

Or freak him out because it's her. Who knows. ]

[windbreakers]

[ Even now, right after Seto told her that a majority of their team died, that she's trapped in the Kagerou Daze, she's still thinking about him... Kido has always been kind, despite the front that she can sometimes put up, and it somehow only makes him feel worse. He misses her. He misses everyone. He's looking downward as he allows himself to wallow a bit more so when Kido reaches out to pat him on the head, it takes him by surprise. ]

[ He doesn't say anything at first, just sitting there and nodding about getting him back home. A few seconds in, the corners of his eyes start to get wet and warm and he brings up a fist to his face, rubbing at his eyes. ]

I missed you too...

[ He belatedly replies back to her earlier comment about missing him. looks up at her with a smile. His tears are gone now. ]

You look well.

[reveilation]

[ Kido breathes a laugh, because she's been living in this hellhole for five months, so it's rather remarkable to hear she looks well. Maybe she looks that way because Seto is here again, and it feels like a part of her's returned— she has her family back, mending the hole in her heart from when it'd broken after arriving here again. ]

Better than you, anyways. You'd better get rid of those crickets before you get to town. They're not going to want you near the gardens.

[windbreakers]

[ Oh right, the crickets... Seto was so wrapped up in the moment that he forgot that he had a million bugs jumping and climbing all over him. Wearing a full jumpsuit has its disadvantages, like you can't feel when there are a bunch of bugs on you. ]

R-Right. I don't know where they came from. They just suddenly dropped from the sky.

[ Are boxes of crickets falling from skies common in this town? Because if so, fuck this place. Seto will stand up and begin to shake his clothes which causes at least twenty crickets to fall to the ground... ]

[reveilation]

[ Fuck this place regardless, and also fuck Seto for shaking his clothes with her standing right there because she gives a shout and jumps back before any of the crickets and infest her hoodie instead of his. She never got back her original hoodie after the lake dungeon death, so she's wearing her Daze one at the moment. ]

Don't do that! Did any of them get inside? Take that off and turn it inside out, and I'll find a stick to give it a few good whacks. That should knock all of them out.

[ Or squash them inside his jumpsuit. ]

[windbreakers]

I can't just take off my clothes!

[ Because he's not wearing anything under his jumpsuit and he's not going to stand around in his underwear while Kido beats his clothes with a stick. ]

[ i checked to see if he has a t-shirt under his clothes but nope... just bare neck and collarbone... seto runs around naked in a green jumpsuit apparently... ]

[reveilation]

[ Oh my god. Seto's going to freeze in the winter. ]

Yes you can. There's nobody else around, and I'll be quick.

[ Nobody knows who you are, Seto, it's fine even if somebody spots him. ]

[windbreakers]

[ set him on fire, kido, that's the only way he's going to survive throughout the winter. ]

I can't just stand here in my underwear while you beat my clothes, Kido...

[ And it's chilly. He will freeze even in this weather. ]

[reveilation]

Hm... The castle is pretty close by. If you want privacy, we'll do it there.

[ The walls will sort of block the wind, and the only people who'll see are the Attendants who sort of do this stuff anyways, so they shouldn't give standing around in your underwear a second thought. ]