[ Rei is far smaller than all of these Shadows. She's not very strong so she's not sure how she can wrestle a weapon out of their hands, but it's Toki's lucky day. The one with the bat, the Shadow that just tried to smash their skulls in, begins to approach them. They're small enough that he could easily knock them over. ]
[Toki still isn't that great at judging distance of noises, so he waits a little longer than necessary. The Shadow is already swinging the bat at them again when Toki jumps up from the floor and runs straight at it, plowing into its stomach and knocking it down. He sprawls on top of the Shadow, trying to hold it down long enough for Rei to get them a weapon.]
[ The Shadow struggles, trying to kick and flail to toss Toki off, but Rei wastes absolutely no time to pick up the bat that was thrown out of its hands. She grips it with both hands and she lifts it up before bringing it down on the Shadow's head. It makes a disgusting crunching sound and black ooze splatters outwards. This is going to quite traumatizing... but at least the Shadow quickly fades away after it has died. ]
I-- I got the bat!
[ She still sounds pretty panicked, however, and she's shaking. She lets one hand go of the handle so she can help Toki up. The other Shadows are now wary, seeing that the Persona users managed to kill one of them and got a weapon. They stay a few steps away. For now. ]
[The thud and the crunching and the squishing as the Shadow's head caves in is a sound Toki won't forget any time soon. The rest of it follows, everything underneath him turning to viscous goo and it's all over him and soaking into his clothes. Gross.
He hesitates for a moment after Rei helps him up. Is it better for her to have the bat, or him? He's stronger, only because he's so much bigger than her, and he has a longer reach.]
Okay... Let me have it, and you just tell me where they are.
[ She presses the bat handle into Toki's hand without much hesitation. It's far too big for her and it's more likely that she'd get hurt by just trying to use it. The Shadows listen in and they suspect that the tall one can't possibly see. There would be no other reason why he would need the small one to tell him where they are, so with that in mind, a group of four Shadows run forward. They hope to overpower the humans. ]
F-Four are coming! Two on your right and two on your left!
[ They decide to split up, thinking that Toki can't possibly get all of them. Rei is definitely not powerful enough to handle them on her own and she no longer has a weapon. They could probably take her down easily. ]
[Oh my god. That's too many. And from both sides, and Toki doesn't know how big they are and where to aim. This was a bad, bad idea. Toki goes with the Shadows on the left, swinging the bat up high. He misses entirely the first time and almost falls when the bat continues to go right to the floor. Something brushes against his arm and he hopes it isn't Rei, as he instinctively moves away, turning to swing the bat in that direction.]
[ Luckily, Rei is sticking close but staying behind him, moving with him as he does so she doesn't get in his way. She's not the one who brushed his arm but a Shadow that reached out with a hand to try and grab Toki, but ultimately fails as the bat collides with their neck. It makes a loud snapping sound as they're thrown to the ground. A second Shadow has been defeated. ]
[ The other three still remain and the other Shadows are starting to find their courage again as two more joins the scramble. It's hard for even Rei to keep up with all their movements. ]
There are two mo--
[ Yet again, she's cut off from her sentence with a scream. One of the Shadows grabbed onto her hair, intent on dragging her to the ground where it can wrap its hands around her neck. A hand snakes towards her neck already, but she managed to grab it and bring it to her mouth, biting down hard. The Shadow lets out their own loud cry of pain as black blood begins to leak out of their hand. ]
[This is what Toki's most afraid of. That he won't be able to prevent things from attacking Rei. Her scream could have been her death. Toki focuses his strikes with the bat on where the Shadow is shouting. He's starting to panic too much, and continuously hitting the Shadow with the bat, not listening to anything else but the impacts.
Until the bat is taken from his hands by another Shadow, and a second is right there behind Toki to stab him in the back with a knife. He screams and rounds on that Shadow, grabbing any part he can reach and digging his fingernails into it. He'll try to rip it apart with his bare hands in his panic.]
[ Four Shadows have now been defeated. The one that took hold of Rei has been disintegrated into nothing but a mess of broken bones and flesh. It dissolves away shortly afterwards. The one that stabbed Toki in the back has been grabbed by the neck and the pain is overwhelming. It's enough to temporarily stun them, giving enough time for Toki to properly rip out their throat. Similarly to all the others, it melts away into a thick black slime. ]
[ Rei has been trying to catch her breath and get that godawful taste out of her mouth, but she's forced to act immediately after she was freed. The Shadow that stole the bat away, it raises its weapon high up. It almost brings it down onto Toki's shoulder, but it's tackled to the ground before it gets the chance. Rei's small, but even she's able to knock someone over when they're not expecting it. ]
[ There are the sounds of a struggle as the two of them fight over the bat. Those sounds are followed with a sickening crack and then silence. The silence lasts for a few seconds and there is absolutely no movement. It is broken by the clattering of a heavy object falling to the ground and quick footsteps. ]
T-- Tokidoki--!
[ It's Rei's voice. She runs up to Toki and checks on his injuries. The Shadow never managed to pull out its knife out of his back. ]
[When the fighting turns to silence, Toki can't breathe. Is she dead? What happened? The bat falling makes him flinch; he was listening too hard and it clatters ominously. The footsteps that follow are light and Toki lets out a shuddering breath. She's okay.]
Rei! Are you hurt!?
[That's all he cares about. The knife in his back produces both sharp pains and dull throbs with each movement, so he's trying to stay still. Then it occurs to him that they're still alone in here.]
C-can you? Without Ananke?
[How many Shadows are still in here? How many do they need to kill?]
[ Her injuries are minor compared to Toki's. She has some scrapes and bruises, but nothing that she can't handle. Maybe when she was still with Zen, she would have cried over them, but after dealing with all these dungeons for the past six~seven months, she's gotten used to them. Besides, once she heals Toki, she'll heal herself so it'll be fine. There aren't any more Shadows, all disappearing once the five have been defeated, so they don't have to worry about them. However, no Persona appears when Rei tries. ]
I-I still can't summon Ananke... but there are two doors. Let's go through one of them. Maybe I can summon her there...
[ Through the entire struggle, they managed to get close enough to the doors that they're only a few steps away. I will leave it up to you which door that they'll go through and if it'll be either Toki's or Rei's trauma first. ]
I'm sorry... but can you move? They're only a little bit away.
[If the doors are available, the Shadows are gone and they should be okay. With Rei's help, he can make it to the door. Hopefully, Personas can be summoned in whatever place they end up. Luckly, coinflip says they can be.
Rei and Toki will find themselves on the campus of Daybreak Academy. The architecture is mostly old European, the campus buildings detailed with ornate stone and sloping roofs. Towards the right, across the courtyard, are two more modern buildings, the dormitories. This is one of Toki's memories, and Rei is taking the role of a classmate Toki considered his best friend at the time.
They're in the middle of the courtyard on a nice spring day, the sun shining down and a gentle breeze. Toki is sitting in a chair, wearing his Daybreak uniform; white pants, a light blue blazer, a ribbon around his neck, and a beret. His shoes are bright red and shiny, like he'd just bought them. One thing he doesn't have is an earring. There is a camera crew set up in front of him with an interviewer asking him about classes.]
My favorite class? Well, there's really so many wonderful courses to choose from at this illustrious academy. I enjoy Professor Alouette's mechanics class for the hands-on experience, as well as Professor Atchison's law curriculum. Students are encouraged to have variety in their schedules.
[Toki finds himself saying this automatically, ignoring the knife in his back and not being able to move from the chair. Rei will see this from a few feet away, listening to the interview with an urge to jump in if Toki has a stupid answer. Which he does, because he'd had a stupid answer when this really happened.]
"I see. Mechanics and Law. Now, other students have mentioned a preference for Professor Torres's class. What is your opinion on that?"
Who's Professor Torres? I don't take Spanish.
[No. Not this day. Oh my god. He doesn't want Rei to see what happens after this interview. He keeps smiling like he did during the interview, but he's screaming inside.]
[ Rei doesn't understand what's happening. Toki hasn't actually explained what this dungeon entailed and neither did anyone else. She thought that this was just like the previous dungeons where you fight Shadows and get to the final room. She didn't expect to be seemingly transported somewhere completely new and Toki is wearing an outfit that she's never seen him in before. There's this strange... push that forces Rei to step forward, but it's not something that she fights. She wants to go to him anyway. ]
Tokidoki...? What's going on?
[ Why is he acting completely normal? While the knife is still in his back? Is this him or is this just some kind of illusion made by the dungeon? ]
[Toki never explained anything, and this is why he shouldn't have gone with Rei alone to the dungeon. He hadn't been in a memory floor either. He knew they existed, but he's only experienced the fears, and he was free to do what he wanted in them. His answer to Rei's question doesn't make sense, because it's a reply to Adelaide's interruption of his interview and not Rei's.]
Yes, she's right! Not everyone knows all the classes, but Babet- uh, Katherine here, loves Spanish and I'm sure she can fill you in on Professor Torres's very popular class!
[He continues rambling on about "Katherine"'s humble beginnings in a California fishing village. Toki remembers doing this, babbling about his fabricated backstory for Adelaide, because he was trying to stall since he didn't know who Professor Torres was.]
-was extremely delighted with her scholarship to Daybreak. Katherine has risen high in the ranks here in such a short time, her aptitude for- Valvatorez!
[Professor Val. V. Torres. Toki was such an idiot. The reporter isn't interested in the fake Spanish class anymore, turning to Rei. He asks about the international makeup of Daybreak and how the language barrier is going, because Adelaide is American and Toki is Japanese, and neither of them speak French well at this point.]
"Yes, please tell me about this translation technology, Miss Katherine."
[Toki can barely feel the knife anymore, because he's freaking out internally. They have to leave before Rei sees all this.]
[ She feels suddenly uncomfortable with the attention that is placed on her. She's been better about her shy nature, but she's still not that great when it comes to strangers who put her on the spot like this. ]
I-I don't know what you're talking about...
[ She just wants to get out of here and just focus on healing, but it seems like she can't. Toki doesn't even seem to be answering her properly and she doesn't know why. Is this really an illusion? She's not sure, but she doesn't stand around to wait and waste time. She can try to deal with the consequences later, so she touches her omamori and, luckily, it actually works this time. Ananke appears and she bends down to examine the knife in Toki's back while Zhn wraps himself protectively around the chair, trying to keep the distance between Toki and the interviewing crew. ]
Ananke's going to take out the knife so this will hurt for a bit, but she'll heal you immediately, okay?
[ Rei chooses to ignore the others so she can whisper to Toki. Even if he doesn't reply back properly, she wants to at least warn him before they actually go through with digging out a knife. ]
[The interviewers are from the BBC, and they were under the impression Daybreak was a traditional elite private school, and not a magic one. Ananke and Zhn appearing out of nowhere causes the crew to mutter among themselves with apprehensive glances. This is just one more thing in the line of weird shit they've seen at the academy today, and they're packing up their equipment and vacating the courtyard. A moment earlier than they had with Adelaide.
Toki hears Rei and with the exit of the BBC crew ahead of schedule, some of his control is coming back and he's able to nod. He tries to tell her what's going to happen, but the words won't come out.]
[ Well, that solves that. The crew leaves and Rei immediately feels more at ease, though Zhn still remains on guard and protectively curled up around Toki. She bends down next to the chair and takes his hand. ]
All right, she'll do it in three... two... one...
[ Ananke pulls out the knife in one swift motion, immediately dropping it to the floor. She casts a warm Salvation, healing both Toki and Rei at the same time, hoping to heal whatever strange ailment that has caused Toki to sprout nonsense. ]
[Toki makes a strangled noise when the knife is pulled out, but the pain is soon gone and it's a nice calming feeling. Only for a moment.]
Yeah, I-
[That's as far as he gets. He's finally moving, but still through no volition of his own. He begins convulsing violently, sliding out of the chair and onto Zhn or the ground. He isn't aware of any of it. The twitching and jerking will continue throughout his entire vision. But this is Toki's memory, and not Adelaide's; so what Rei gets to see overlaid in front of her is what Toki is seeing:
Quickly flickering teal and red, over and over again. He wants to throw up. Then it's black. Nothing. He doesn't know where he is; he can't feeling anything but a primal, instinctual knowledge that something is there with him. In front of him, the blackness parts horizontally. It's an eye, opening. The deep hollowed socket. The bright spirally iris, the red-circled pupil, dripping down like blood. The other one opens after and he's staring at the eyes that haunt his dreams. They don't blink, they don't look away. He can't either. The irises begin to swirl in a hypnotic rhythm. They change from teal to a rainbow of neon hues, shifting fast and frenzied. He's moving closer to them, or they to him. He can't tell. He can't feel anything. The eyes close, but he knows they're still there, watching. Watching all the time.
All thoughts and knowledge that this is a memory and not real are gone. The feelings of dread the vision brings are powerful. It's watching and it's horrible and it's going to kill everyone. As soon as Toki stops convulsing and can function even a little, he's shrieking about it.]
[ Zhn moves quickly to soften Toki's landing, but he can't hold him while the latter is convulsing. Rei can't hold onto his hand as he jerks around and she was able to call over Ananke, to try and do anything to help, but she's stopped by... something. ]
[ Just like this entire area, she doesn't understand. What is she seeing? What is that? She's absolutely frozen and she wants to shut her eyes, but she can't. Fear slithers down her throat and swallows her whole. She doesn't know what this is, what those eyes mean, but it fills her with such dread that may or may not have originated from Toki's. Regardless of their origins, she's petrified and if it weren't for Toki's screams, she wouldn't have said or done anything. He breaks her out of her trance-like state and she vaguely remembers what happened right before the vision. ]
[ She tries to comfort him, but she can't stop trembling. Even as she tries to hold him, she shakes and she can't get that image out of her head. She's never seen anything like that before and it was so deeply unsettling that she doesn't know if she can get that out of her head anytime soon. Ananke tries to use an Amrita Shower to calm down their nerves while Zhn tries to brush his head against Toki as a form of comfort. ]
[He doesn't know Rei saw the vision, but she's shaking against him and obviously frightened of something. He assumes it's because she saw him have a seizure, which he neglected to tell her about when he talked about his visions. He finds he has control over himself now, but it doesn't help the situation much, because they're still in the memory.]
I keep seeing the same thing and not just in visions! I'm dreaming about it too and I can like feel it, like when you just know someone's behind you or looking at you, but so much more intense; it's like that and dread in the pit of stomach and this like sharp stab of panic like you have to run right now or you're going to die! I know it's not really happening, or not happening yet, but it will and I don't know what it is! It could be some monster or a daemon or even a human or a symbol for like something else entirely or an organization or the Seers at the Daybreak or some Outlands collective or, or-
[Oh, shit. He can move as he wants now, but that wasn't anything he'd meant to say. It's what he'd told Adelaide.]
The whole Seer thing didn't just like happen! I made a contract with a daemon and before you ask, I don't know its name or anything about it and I don't know what it wanted from me or what I signed on for because there was only a verbal agreement and I didn't know that's what was happening when I said yes or apparently thought having the ability to see the future was a good idea, which it is very much a bad idea! It was right after my sister died and I was talking to this guy that I thought she worked with about how I wish I could have known what would happen that day and never would have gone to the shrine and that it would be horrible if someone else had the same experience and hey, wouldn't it be nice if you had the power to stop that kind of thing from happening to someone else since you couldn't save her!? Yes! That's would awesome! Okay, sure! Daemon contract! And before I started having these visions and dreams, which I will tell you about in a minute, Kano thought that the reason I can't see with my left eye is because the daemon hasn't been looking through it, but it could! And that's exactly what it's doing right now! I know that's what this is! It's coming to kill me and everyone else and it has these horrible hollowed out eyes with spirals and blood dripping down and they watch me while I sleep and I've had two visions about them and I feel them looking at me for hours after! It's watching! It's watching everything and It's going to kill everybody and it's my fault! It knows where this place is because it's looking through me!
[He's hysterical and crying, like he was back then in April. Like he's talking to Adelaide and not Rei, like he's still lost in the desperation, fear, and confusion of his increasingly detrimental powers. The Amrita Shower seemingly has no effect on remembered emotions that Toki isn't currently feeling, but just acting out.]
[ This is a lot. Even though the Amrita Shower works on Rei for a few short moments, those negative feelings quickly come back with every single run-on sentence that Toki spews out. She's so easily influenced by other people's emotions and thoughts so his panic seeps over to her. Her shaking stopped for a minute, but has started up again and even as she tries to hold onto Toki's hands, her own hands continue to tremble. Her breathing begins to hitch and she starts to cry. She doesn't know what to do. She wishes that she could just make a decision or think of some plan. Why can't she be like Leader, Vice Leader, or Zen? They would probably know how to handle Toki better than her, even if she's his wife. ]
Wh-- What should I do?!
[ Ananke can't afford to use another Amrita Shower. Her SP only recovers after she completes a battle and she doesn't know when that will be happening. She needs to conserve her energy for any physical injuries so she and Zhn can only watch. ]
[He can't tell her anything, and he just wants this to end. It doesn't. The campus of Daybreak seems to melt away and then they're in a room. A dorm room with two loft beds and one window. The left side is a typical teenage boy's space; a little messy, packaged snack foods here and there, a few pictures on the wall and the desk, some clothes and shoes on the floor. They're far too small to be Toki's.
His is the other side. Walls barren except for dozens of spiral eyes drawn on the ceiling above his bed. There's nothing on his desk but a closed laptop and a couple of cat toys. His bed has rails attached to the sides. Toki isn't crying anymore, and he walks straight to his bed to retrieve something from under his mattress. It's two notebooks. He leaves one, about his roommate's nightmares, on the bed and brings the other to his desk to open it.
He will completely ignore Rei as he scrawls down notes from the vision he had. The pages are filled with half-Japanese and half-French word salad with no punctuation or line spaces, no end or beginning to vision records. The spiral eyes Rei saw are drawn everywhere in the margins. This is the second notebook of it's kind, and there will be a third. The evidence of Toki's continuing descent into madness.]
I have to write it down, and then we can go get coffee.
[That's what he says, but his writing has turned into sketching the eyes over and over again mindlessly.]
[ Even as the setting changes into a room, Rei is still sobbing and shaking. She tries to wipe away her tears with her hands and Zhn completely wraps himself around her legs, trying to soothe her. It helps, only a tiny bit, but then she finally looks at what Toki is doing and he's drawing those exact same eyes. She lets out a small cry, flinching backwards. ]
Why are you drawing them? If you're scared, you shouldn't draw them!
[ She doesn't understand why he's so calm right after his hysterical breakdown. What does he mean that they're going to get coffee after this? Why is he acting like this? She reaches over and tries to rip the notebook away from him. ]
[He draws them, because they occupy his every thought, both when asleep and awake. They are insidious, and he will still be drawing them two months from now: on trees in the woods, on his body, scratching them into the floor while hiding under the food table at prom...
Toki blinks in confusion when Rei takes the notebook. He was drawing too many again.]
I... have to draw them.
[He grabs Rei's hand and moves to the door of the dorm room.]
[ His reply doesn't actually answer her questions, but she can't say anything else as he grabs her hand. Tears are still steaming down her face. ]
A-Are we going back outside?
[ Zhn sticks close as he follows. He is absolutely ready to bite on Toki's ankle if it seems like he'll cause any more distress to Rei. Like Nekogami, he's primarily interested in Rei's wellbeing. Even if it'll upset her, he'll attack anyone who tries to hurt her. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
flowerclips) wrote2019-08-07 07:12 pm
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I-- I got the bat!
[ She still sounds pretty panicked, however, and she's shaking. She lets one hand go of the handle so she can help Toki up. The other Shadows are now wary, seeing that the Persona users managed to kill one of them and got a weapon. They stay a few steps away. For now. ]
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He hesitates for a moment after Rei helps him up. Is it better for her to have the bat, or him? He's stronger, only because he's so much bigger than her, and he has a longer reach.]
Okay... Let me have it, and you just tell me where they are.
[Using a bat takes no skill or finesse.]
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F-Four are coming! Two on your right and two on your left!
[ They decide to split up, thinking that Toki can't possibly get all of them. Rei is definitely not powerful enough to handle them on her own and she no longer has a weapon. They could probably take her down easily. ]
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[ The other three still remain and the other Shadows are starting to find their courage again as two more joins the scramble. It's hard for even Rei to keep up with all their movements. ]
There are two mo--
[ Yet again, she's cut off from her sentence with a scream. One of the Shadows grabbed onto her hair, intent on dragging her to the ground where it can wrap its hands around her neck. A hand snakes towards her neck already, but she managed to grab it and bring it to her mouth, biting down hard. The Shadow lets out their own loud cry of pain as black blood begins to leak out of their hand. ]
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Until the bat is taken from his hands by another Shadow, and a second is right there behind Toki to stab him in the back with a knife. He screams and rounds on that Shadow, grabbing any part he can reach and digging his fingernails into it. He'll try to rip it apart with his bare hands in his panic.]
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[ Rei has been trying to catch her breath and get that godawful taste out of her mouth, but she's forced to act immediately after she was freed. The Shadow that stole the bat away, it raises its weapon high up. It almost brings it down onto Toki's shoulder, but it's tackled to the ground before it gets the chance. Rei's small, but even she's able to knock someone over when they're not expecting it. ]
[ There are the sounds of a struggle as the two of them fight over the bat. Those sounds are followed with a sickening crack and then silence. The silence lasts for a few seconds and there is absolutely no movement. It is broken by the clattering of a heavy object falling to the ground and quick footsteps. ]
T-- Tokidoki--!
[ It's Rei's voice. She runs up to Toki and checks on his injuries. The Shadow never managed to pull out its knife out of his back. ]
D-Don't take it out. Not until I can heal it!
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Rei! Are you hurt!?
[That's all he cares about. The knife in his back produces both sharp pains and dull throbs with each movement, so he's trying to stay still. Then it occurs to him that they're still alone in here.]
C-can you? Without Ananke?
[How many Shadows are still in here? How many do they need to kill?]
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[ Her injuries are minor compared to Toki's. She has some scrapes and bruises, but nothing that she can't handle. Maybe when she was still with Zen, she would have cried over them, but after dealing with all these dungeons for the past six~seven months, she's gotten used to them. Besides, once she heals Toki, she'll heal herself so it'll be fine. There aren't any more Shadows, all disappearing once the five have been defeated, so they don't have to worry about them. However, no Persona appears when Rei tries. ]
I-I still can't summon Ananke... but there are two doors. Let's go through one of them. Maybe I can summon her there...
[ Through the entire struggle, they managed to get close enough to the doors that they're only a few steps away. I will leave it up to you which door that they'll go through and if it'll be either Toki's or Rei's trauma first. ]
I'm sorry... but can you move? They're only a little bit away.
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[If the doors are available, the Shadows are gone and they should be okay. With Rei's help, he can make it to the door. Hopefully, Personas can be summoned in whatever place they end up. Luckly, coinflip says they can be.
Rei and Toki will find themselves on the campus of Daybreak Academy. The architecture is mostly old European, the campus buildings detailed with ornate stone and sloping roofs. Towards the right, across the courtyard, are two more modern buildings, the dormitories. This is one of Toki's memories, and Rei is taking the role of a classmate Toki considered his best friend at the time.
They're in the middle of the courtyard on a nice spring day, the sun shining down and a gentle breeze. Toki is sitting in a chair, wearing his Daybreak uniform; white pants, a light blue blazer, a ribbon around his neck, and a beret. His shoes are bright red and shiny, like he'd just bought them. One thing he doesn't have is an earring. There is a camera crew set up in front of him with an interviewer asking him about classes.]
My favorite class? Well, there's really so many wonderful courses to choose from at this illustrious academy. I enjoy Professor Alouette's mechanics class for the hands-on experience, as well as Professor Atchison's law curriculum. Students are encouraged to have variety in their schedules.
[Toki finds himself saying this automatically, ignoring the knife in his back and not being able to move from the chair. Rei will see this from a few feet away, listening to the interview with an urge to jump in if Toki has a stupid answer. Which he does, because he'd had a stupid answer when this really happened.]
"I see. Mechanics and Law. Now, other students have mentioned a preference for Professor Torres's class. What is your opinion on that?"
Who's Professor Torres? I don't take Spanish.
[No. Not this day. Oh my god. He doesn't want Rei to see what happens after this interview. He keeps smiling like he did during the interview, but he's screaming inside.]
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Tokidoki...? What's going on?
[ Why is he acting completely normal? While the knife is still in his back? Is this him or is this just some kind of illusion made by the dungeon? ]
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Yes, she's right! Not everyone knows all the classes, but Babet- uh, Katherine here, loves Spanish and I'm sure she can fill you in on Professor Torres's very popular class!
[He continues rambling on about "Katherine"'s humble beginnings in a California fishing village. Toki remembers doing this, babbling about his fabricated backstory for Adelaide, because he was trying to stall since he didn't know who Professor Torres was.]
-was extremely delighted with her scholarship to Daybreak. Katherine has risen high in the ranks here in such a short time, her aptitude for- Valvatorez!
[Professor Val. V. Torres. Toki was such an idiot. The reporter isn't interested in the fake Spanish class anymore, turning to Rei. He asks about the international makeup of Daybreak and how the language barrier is going, because Adelaide is American and Toki is Japanese, and neither of them speak French well at this point.]
"Yes, please tell me about this translation technology, Miss Katherine."
[Toki can barely feel the knife anymore, because he's freaking out internally. They have to leave before Rei sees all this.]
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I-I don't know what you're talking about...
[ She just wants to get out of here and just focus on healing, but it seems like she can't. Toki doesn't even seem to be answering her properly and she doesn't know why. Is this really an illusion? She's not sure, but she doesn't stand around to wait and waste time. She can try to deal with the consequences later, so she touches her omamori and, luckily, it actually works this time. Ananke appears and she bends down to examine the knife in Toki's back while Zhn wraps himself protectively around the chair, trying to keep the distance between Toki and the interviewing crew. ]
Ananke's going to take out the knife so this will hurt for a bit, but she'll heal you immediately, okay?
[ Rei chooses to ignore the others so she can whisper to Toki. Even if he doesn't reply back properly, she wants to at least warn him before they actually go through with digging out a knife. ]
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Toki hears Rei and with the exit of the BBC crew ahead of schedule, some of his control is coming back and he's able to nod. He tries to tell her what's going to happen, but the words won't come out.]
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All right, she'll do it in three... two... one...
[ Ananke pulls out the knife in one swift motion, immediately dropping it to the floor. She casts a warm Salvation, healing both Toki and Rei at the same time, hoping to heal whatever strange ailment that has caused Toki to sprout nonsense. ]
Do you feel better?
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Yeah, I-
[That's as far as he gets. He's finally moving, but still through no volition of his own. He begins convulsing violently, sliding out of the chair and onto Zhn or the ground. He isn't aware of any of it. The twitching and jerking will continue throughout his entire vision. But this is Toki's memory, and not Adelaide's; so what Rei gets to see overlaid in front of her is what Toki is seeing:
Quickly flickering teal and red, over and over again. He wants to throw up. Then it's black. Nothing. He doesn't know where he is; he can't feeling anything but a primal, instinctual knowledge that something is there with him. In front of him, the blackness parts horizontally. It's an eye, opening. The deep hollowed socket. The bright spirally iris, the red-circled pupil, dripping down like blood. The other one opens after and he's staring at the eyes that haunt his dreams. They don't blink, they don't look away. He can't either. The irises begin to swirl in a hypnotic rhythm. They change from teal to a rainbow of neon hues, shifting fast and frenzied. He's moving closer to them, or they to him. He can't tell. He can't feel anything. The eyes close, but he knows they're still there, watching. Watching all the time.
All thoughts and knowledge that this is a memory and not real are gone. The feelings of dread the vision brings are powerful. It's watching and it's horrible and it's going to kill everyone. As soon as Toki stops convulsing and can function even a little, he's shrieking about it.]
It's watching! It's watching! It's watching!
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[ Just like this entire area, she doesn't understand. What is she seeing? What is that? She's absolutely frozen and she wants to shut her eyes, but she can't. Fear slithers down her throat and swallows her whole. She doesn't know what this is, what those eyes mean, but it fills her with such dread that may or may not have originated from Toki's. Regardless of their origins, she's petrified and if it weren't for Toki's screams, she wouldn't have said or done anything. He breaks her out of her trance-like state and she vaguely remembers what happened right before the vision. ]
To-- Tokidoki, it's me! There's nothing here! Nothing's watching!
[ She tries to comfort him, but she can't stop trembling. Even as she tries to hold him, she shakes and she can't get that image out of her head. She's never seen anything like that before and it was so deeply unsettling that she doesn't know if she can get that out of her head anytime soon. Ananke tries to use an Amrita Shower to calm down their nerves while Zhn tries to brush his head against Toki as a form of comfort. ]
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I keep seeing the same thing and not just in visions! I'm dreaming about it too and I can like feel it, like when you just know someone's behind you or looking at you, but so much more intense; it's like that and dread in the pit of stomach and this like sharp stab of panic like you have to run right now or you're going to die! I know it's not really happening, or not happening yet, but it will and I don't know what it is! It could be some monster or a daemon or even a human or a symbol for like something else entirely or an organization or the Seers at the Daybreak or some Outlands collective or, or-
[Oh, shit. He can move as he wants now, but that wasn't anything he'd meant to say. It's what he'd told Adelaide.]
The whole Seer thing didn't just like happen! I made a contract with a daemon and before you ask, I don't know its name or anything about it and I don't know what it wanted from me or what I signed on for because there was only a verbal agreement and I didn't know that's what was happening when I said yes or apparently thought having the ability to see the future was a good idea, which it is very much a bad idea! It was right after my sister died and I was talking to this guy that I thought she worked with about how I wish I could have known what would happen that day and never would have gone to the shrine and that it would be horrible if someone else had the same experience and hey, wouldn't it be nice if you had the power to stop that kind of thing from happening to someone else since you couldn't save her!? Yes! That's would awesome! Okay, sure! Daemon contract! And before I started having these visions and dreams, which I will tell you about in a minute, Kano thought that the reason I can't see with my left eye is because the daemon hasn't been looking through it, but it could! And that's exactly what it's doing right now! I know that's what this is! It's coming to kill me and everyone else and it has these horrible hollowed out eyes with spirals and blood dripping down and they watch me while I sleep and I've had two visions about them and I feel them looking at me for hours after! It's watching! It's watching everything and It's going to kill everybody and it's my fault! It knows where this place is because it's looking through me!
[He's hysterical and crying, like he was back then in April. Like he's talking to Adelaide and not Rei, like he's still lost in the desperation, fear, and confusion of his increasingly detrimental powers. The Amrita Shower seemingly has no effect on remembered emotions that Toki isn't currently feeling, but just acting out.]
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Wh-- What should I do?!
[ Ananke can't afford to use another Amrita Shower. Her SP only recovers after she completes a battle and she doesn't know when that will be happening. She needs to conserve her energy for any physical injuries so she and Zhn can only watch. ]
Tokidoki-- tell me, what should I do?!
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His is the other side. Walls barren except for dozens of spiral eyes drawn on the ceiling above his bed. There's nothing on his desk but a closed laptop and a couple of cat toys. His bed has rails attached to the sides. Toki isn't crying anymore, and he walks straight to his bed to retrieve something from under his mattress. It's two notebooks. He leaves one, about his roommate's nightmares, on the bed and brings the other to his desk to open it.
He will completely ignore Rei as he scrawls down notes from the vision he had. The pages are filled with half-Japanese and half-French word salad with no punctuation or line spaces, no end or beginning to vision records. The spiral eyes Rei saw are drawn everywhere in the margins. This is the second notebook of it's kind, and there will be a third. The evidence of Toki's continuing descent into madness.]
I have to write it down, and then we can go get coffee.
[That's what he says, but his writing has turned into sketching the eyes over and over again mindlessly.]
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Why are you drawing them? If you're scared, you shouldn't draw them!
[ She doesn't understand why he's so calm right after his hysterical breakdown. What does he mean that they're going to get coffee after this? Why is he acting like this? She reaches over and tries to rip the notebook away from him. ]
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Toki blinks in confusion when Rei takes the notebook. He was drawing too many again.]
I... have to draw them.
[He grabs Rei's hand and moves to the door of the dorm room.]
I think the reporters will be gone by now!
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A-Are we going back outside?
[ Zhn sticks close as he follows. He is absolutely ready to bite on Toki's ankle if it seems like he'll cause any more distress to Rei. Like Nekogami, he's primarily interested in Rei's wellbeing. Even if it'll upset her, he'll attack anyone who tries to hurt her. ]
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cw: eye gore
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cw: eye gore and suicidal intentions...
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