[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. ]
[Toki will definitely be causing more stress. He doesn't answer Rei's question, because as soon as he opens the door, it's not opening to the hallway. They're suddenly at the entrance to the dorm, the courtyard sprawling out in front of them.]
Do you want to walk, or take the-
[The bus. But he doesn't get to say it. Only steps from the dormitory building, Toki is hit by another vision. He collapses to the ground and once again begins convulsing. It's been maybe ten minutes since the last one. Again, Rei gets to experience the imagery.
He's lying on the grass, staring up at the sky. It's pink, there's no clouds, and the sun is black. He stands to find himself surrounded by tall mirrors. Gold ornate frames, some oval, some rectangular, all tilted forward a bit, looming. There's one open space between two mirrors. A way out. It leads only to a path lined with more mirrors. The grass under his feet gradually turns to sand. It's fine grain, like beach sand, and it's purple, like in Samura. He follows the path for what seems like forever, twisting and winding, but not getting anywhere. The reflections in the mirrors turn to rainbow static. In the center of every one, a pair of eyes appear. Its eyes. The same ones. He runs down the path, desperate to hide from their gaze. Another opening in the mirrors leads to a yellow room. Once he steps in, the passage is gone. On one wall is a smaller mirror, round and just as ornate as the others. He doesn't want to, but he can't stop. He walks up to it and looks at his reflection. The sclera of his left eye is black. The iris bright teal. It's not his eye. A circle of blood forms around the pupil. He can feel it dripping down his cheek.
When Toki comes out of it, his fingers clutch at the ground, digging. He wants to scream, but he can't make anything work right yet. It's watching. It's the daemon and it's watching and he has to stop it... Those feelings from his past still overwhelming him. He can't move on his own again, he knows what he's going to do, what Rei will see. Fighting against whatever power is making him relive this, he manages one word to Rei. It's whispered and ragged, desperately forced from this throat.]
Run!
[Rei will find she can't. The force of the memory isn't done with her yet. "Adelaide" still has a part to play. Rei will only be able to watch.]
[ By the end of all this, Rei is going to be terrified of these eyes. She wouldn't be able to look at anything even remotely similar without breaking out in cold sweat and shakes. She can't even react to Toki's seizures properly before she has to go through another one of his visions. She comes out of it crying fresh new tears and even if Toki told her to run and she wasn't stuck in place, she wouldn't have. Everything is terrible and she wants to do nothing more than just curl up and sob until she finally gets it together, but she also won't leave Toki behind. She would only leave if she was forcefully dragged away so she stays, though Zhn desperately tries to heed Toki's warning. He tries to pull on Rei's sleeve but she doesn't budge. ]
[ She just has to watch whatever will happen next. ]
Toki's already screaming when he brings his hand to his left eye. He knows what he thought at that time, and it's coming back to him with an almost physical dread. The daemon must be stopped. He digs his fingers into the space between his eye and the socket, but it hurts too much and he yanks them out again, screaming louder.
But it has to be done. He shoves his other hand in his mouth to bite on while he makes his second attempt at destroying the daemon's presumed conduit. His fingers have gotten slippery with blood and he can't get a grip on the eye to rip it out; it's going to be a process.
Adelaide was able to hold him down and keep him from finishing his task. But she was six feet tall, and a vampire, and much stronger than Rei. He'd cried and pleaded with her to let him rip out his eye. He begged. Desperately. In the end, the blood oozing from the half-torn eyeball triggered Adelaide's need for blood and she'd bitten him in the neck and left him barely alive. This was an unfortunately memorable day: the first time Toki tried to remove his own eye, the day his best friend almost killed him, and the day he found out she was a vampire.
The memory will end here one way or another. Quickly, if Rei can stop Toki from tearing out his eye. Slowly, if she can't and he succeeds as he didn't in the past.]
[ It takes Rei an entire two seconds to register what Toki's doing to himself and to realize that she can move. It's only during his second attempt that she finally runs forward and tries to do anything, but she's small and weak. She could barely use the bats against the Shadows when they first entered the dungeon. What good is she against someone who's determined to rip out their own eye? ]
[ She's hysterical, screaming and crying for Toki to stop as she grabs onto his arm. She can barely make out her words through her sobbing and Zhn steps in, tossing Rei to the ground. She doesn't have the time to get back up before he sinks his fangs into Toki's hand and jerks back. He's tired of having to play gentle or take on a more passive role in this dungeon. He knows that Rei will be upset, but she wants Toki to stop. If it means that he'll have to potentially mauling Toki's hand so he lets go of his eye then so be it. At least it'd be easier to heal a hand than an eye. ]
[The pain in his hand is not a memory and Toki registers it, but the determination to finish this, to get rid of the daemon eye is too strong. He just takes his other hand out of his mouth and shoves his saliva-covered fingers into his eye socket. His screaming is louder, as there's nothing in the way, and Zhn's fangs ripping through his flesh bring more panic.]
[ Rei tries to stand up and run back to Toki to stop him, but Zhn releases the hand in his mouth to push her back on the floor. He knows that even with both Rei and Ananke's strength put together, they won't be able to hold down Toki's other arm. He won't be able to do anything either, at least for the long-term. Who knows if this rampage will go on forever, so he tries a different approach. ]
[ He grabs onto the back of Rei's sweater and drags her far enough that she won't get caught into the crossfire. He then uses a series of Mahamaon and Mamudoon skills, using them one right after another. They only have a medium chance of actually working, so he tries them over and over until Toki dies. A simple revival skill will do the trick to bring him back, but first, Zhn needs to kill him in order to get him to stop. ]
[Toki takes no notice of Zhn's spells, just continuing to act out his part in the memory until he's dead. At that moment, the door to the dormitory behind Rei will glow blue.]
[ Rei is inconsolable. Zhn is part of Ananke so she knows what he did. She knows why Toki has finally stopped and lies motionless on the floor. Although Zhn acted on his own, it was still her desire for Toki to stop that led to this. He is part of her and whatever he does, she does. She just killed her husband and nothing right now will alleviate her grief. ]
[ It's Ananke who helps Rei up and guides her towards the door while Zhn drags Toki by the collar. Walking through, they arrive at an empty hallway of the dungeon without any Shadows to disturb them. It's silent asides from Rei's sobbing. Zhn gently lets go of Toki's collar and watches silently as Ananke walks on over to cast Samarecarm, reviving and fully healing Toki. However, their Persona user is too distraught to even watch or take notice, on her knees with her face buried into her hands. ]
[The next thing Toki is aware of is that nothing hurts. Not physically. But the memory is fresh in his mind, how he felt that entire day, and knowing Rei was there and watching it all. Her screams he barely heard over his own. And she's crying now.
But it has to be over. He's not lying in the grass anymore, there's no warm sunshine. Toki sits up slowly, leaning against the wall. He feels his left eye, and it's intact and healed, though there's blood all over his fingers and half of his face. He doesn't want Rei to look at it, so he scrubs at his face with his sleeve, but it's only making streaks.]
Rei?
[His voice echoes loudly and he hadn't meant it to be that shaky.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
flowerclips) wrote2019-08-07 07:12 pm
no subject
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?]
no subject
[ 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.
no subject
[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.]
no subject
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? ]
no subject
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.]
no subject
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. ]
no subject
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.]
no subject
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?
no subject
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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Do you want to walk, or take the-
[The bus. But he doesn't get to say it. Only steps from the dormitory building, Toki is hit by another vision. He collapses to the ground and once again begins convulsing. It's been maybe ten minutes since the last one. Again, Rei gets to experience the imagery.
He's lying on the grass, staring up at the sky. It's pink, there's no clouds, and the sun is black. He stands to find himself surrounded by tall mirrors. Gold ornate frames, some oval, some rectangular, all tilted forward a bit, looming. There's one open space between two mirrors. A way out. It leads only to a path lined with more mirrors. The grass under his feet gradually turns to sand. It's fine grain, like beach sand, and it's purple, like in Samura. He follows the path for what seems like forever, twisting and winding, but not getting anywhere. The reflections in the mirrors turn to rainbow static. In the center of every one, a pair of eyes appear. Its eyes. The same ones. He runs down the path, desperate to hide from their gaze. Another opening in the mirrors leads to a yellow room. Once he steps in, the passage is gone. On one wall is a smaller mirror, round and just as ornate as the others. He doesn't want to, but he can't stop. He walks up to it and looks at his reflection. The sclera of his left eye is black. The iris bright teal. It's not his eye. A circle of blood forms around the pupil. He can feel it dripping down his cheek.
When Toki comes out of it, his fingers clutch at the ground, digging. He wants to scream, but he can't make anything work right yet. It's watching. It's the daemon and it's watching and he has to stop it... Those feelings from his past still overwhelming him. He can't move on his own again, he knows what he's going to do, what Rei will see. Fighting against whatever power is making him relive this, he manages one word to Rei. It's whispered and ragged, desperately forced from this throat.]
Run!
[Rei will find she can't. The force of the memory isn't done with her yet. "Adelaide" still has a part to play. Rei will only be able to watch.]
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[ She just has to watch whatever will happen next. ]
cw: eye gore
Toki's already screaming when he brings his hand to his left eye. He knows what he thought at that time, and it's coming back to him with an almost physical dread. The daemon must be stopped. He digs his fingers into the space between his eye and the socket, but it hurts too much and he yanks them out again, screaming louder.
But it has to be done. He shoves his other hand in his mouth to bite on while he makes his second attempt at destroying the daemon's presumed conduit. His fingers have gotten slippery with blood and he can't get a grip on the eye to rip it out; it's going to be a process.
Adelaide was able to hold him down and keep him from finishing his task. But she was six feet tall, and a vampire, and much stronger than Rei. He'd cried and pleaded with her to let him rip out his eye. He begged. Desperately. In the end, the blood oozing from the half-torn eyeball triggered Adelaide's need for blood and she'd bitten him in the neck and left him barely alive. This was an unfortunately memorable day: the first time Toki tried to remove his own eye, the day his best friend almost killed him, and the day he found out she was a vampire.
The memory will end here one way or another. Quickly, if Rei can stop Toki from tearing out his eye. Slowly, if she can't and he succeeds as he didn't in the past.]
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[ She's hysterical, screaming and crying for Toki to stop as she grabs onto his arm. She can barely make out her words through her sobbing and Zhn steps in, tossing Rei to the ground. She doesn't have the time to get back up before he sinks his fangs into Toki's hand and jerks back. He's tired of having to play gentle or take on a more passive role in this dungeon. He knows that Rei will be upset, but she wants Toki to stop. If it means that he'll have to potentially mauling Toki's hand so he lets go of his eye then so be it. At least it'd be easier to heal a hand than an eye. ]
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[ He grabs onto the back of Rei's sweater and drags her far enough that she won't get caught into the crossfire. He then uses a series of Mahamaon and Mamudoon skills, using them one right after another. They only have a medium chance of actually working, so he tries them over and over until Toki dies. A simple revival skill will do the trick to bring him back, but first, Zhn needs to kill him in order to get him to stop. ]
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[ It's Ananke who helps Rei up and guides her towards the door while Zhn drags Toki by the collar. Walking through, they arrive at an empty hallway of the dungeon without any Shadows to disturb them. It's silent asides from Rei's sobbing. Zhn gently lets go of Toki's collar and watches silently as Ananke walks on over to cast Samarecarm, reviving and fully healing Toki. However, their Persona user is too distraught to even watch or take notice, on her knees with her face buried into her hands. ]
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But it has to be over. He's not lying in the grass anymore, there's no warm sunshine. Toki sits up slowly, leaning against the wall. He feels his left eye, and it's intact and healed, though there's blood all over his fingers and half of his face. He doesn't want Rei to look at it, so he scrubs at his face with his sleeve, but it's only making streaks.]
Rei?
[His voice echoes loudly and he hadn't meant it to be that shaky.]
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cw: eye gore and suicidal intentions...
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