week one ♡ saturday ♡ magilou

[jokered]

[once he's cleared his head at least a little—it's probably time to head back to the huts. maybe sleep it off and try to feel more human instead of whatever it is he's been.

emotional. hurting. angry. generally frustrated. guilty about yato.

a lot of things.

the people in the longhouse probably saw more anger from akira than the entirety of the phantom thieves collectively between april and sending the calling card in december. so much of what he kept buried for the sake of everyone else, so much of what had been akira kept level by his team had slipped away.

his center of gravity is definitely off.

but a protag is a protag, and a persona protag is even more of a protag—so when he sees magilou shuffling off into the jungle on his way back? he has to follow. what the hell is she getting up to right now?]

Comments

[spinatalltale]

[not only is she shuffling off to the jungle, but she's shuffling off with a large, flaming torch-like stick in hand. OKAY, MAGILOU]

[she doesn't seem to notice she's being shadowed, at any rate. she goes deep into the jungle, never straying too far from the path, and it isn't until she's a good distance away from the beach that she stops]

[and begins to set the jungle foliage framing the path on fire]

[she doesn't let it get too out of hand, keeping an eye on the flickering flames until they grow too large and then stomping them out with her foot. but she does this multiple times, for seemingly no reason. and every time she stops some fire out, she seems to do so in a similar manner to how one might stomp on someone's face]

[OKAY MAGILOU]

[she sure is being weird today]

[jokered]

[she's being shadowed, and akira keeps himself hidden so completely while he watches what she's doing.

which.

sure is a fucking thing. what the hell, magilou. he'll let her do this for a few minutes before:]

Burn them to the ground, not the jungle.

[he's still definitely not in her sights, because maybe he's a bit of his own mess right now the cover feels... well, familiar.]

[spinatalltale]

[she freezes, mid-grinding her heel into the ground, her shoes black with ash. there's smoke in the air, curling in arcs around her, but it isn't so thick that it's hard to breathe]

[she's quiet for a moment before she speaks, though she doesn't turn to look at him]

Uho, don't worry. I'm just practicing.

[. . . OKAY. . .]

[jokered]

Practicing your new career in arson?

[magilou, explain.]

[spinatalltale]

I wouldn't exactly call it a new career. I'm technically already licensed with the Professional Arsonists's Association and everything.

[what if she doesn't!! feel like it!! but anyway, she drops her burning stick to the ground and swiftly extinguishes the flame on the end of it with her foot]

[jokered]

[his eyes follow her movements, but he remains encased in the shadows. it's fine.]

Did they actually piss you off? [akira's definitely still akira enough to not mince words when it counts.]

[spinatalltale]

[shadows are fine. shadows are good. she likes people who stay in the shadows. she turns to face him, arms folded, mouth turned downward into a frown]

I'm feeling slightly irritable.

["slightly irritable"]

Like I just got a paper cut while trying to seal an envelope.

[jokered]

Hm.

[not buying it. clearly, even though he's his own personal wreck, he has more time to focus on other people's problems, because he's akira and that's what he does.]

I too, tend to light things on fire when I get a paper cut. [the sarcasm is absolutely dripping here.]

[spinatalltale]

Well, what do you know! That's another thing we have in common.

[:) :) :)]

[jokered]

Magilou.

[stop deflecting.]

[spinatalltale]

[what's wrong with deflecting!!!]

[she turns away again, drawing her toes across a patch of black earth]

I suppose I'm a little pissed off.

[she says that casually like it's nbd]

I was reminded of an annoying little fly's former existence.

[jokered]

So you do feel something every so often, huh.

[it's bullshit, anyway. for all that magilou acts uncaring and self-interested, he's already caught the glimmers of her care for others.

it's not like he can't tell—she's been through some shit. it's why she deflect, it's why they bear similarly evasive personalities in some respects. she has a lot to hide, and akira doesn't necessarily think it's because she's a bad person or a true threat.

this time, though, is the first that he's seen her express a feeling openly—or a hint of her past.]

It must have been one hell of an annoying fly, if you're ready play with fire.

[spinatalltale]

Nothing good, I assure you. My heart is black and cold like ice! Devoid of all positivity!

[he gets that glimmer, but she's quick it dismiss it. as usual. Melchior was, after all, long dead. incapable of trapping anyone else in his false realities]

[and so was his daughter]

It's a dead fly, anyway. There are two more that need to be squashed in his stead.

[jokered]

Even if you say it a hundred times, I'm going to have my doubts.

[she's not any of those things, so he says it pretty flatly.]

Maybe you should have lit their hut on fire instead of random patches of the jungle. Make some metallic fireworks.

[spinatalltale]

[. . . GROSS, that first part is gross, so she's going to focus on the fireworks part instead. it's easier!!]

[presses her hands against her cheeks and gasps]

Why Mr. McGecko, you are a genius. Fireworks are exactly what this beach resort needs!

My comrades at the Professional Arsonists's Association would be proud.

[does she ever stop shitposting]

[jokered]

[...

it doesn't seem like he's very interested in indulging her much further in this regard. he knows why she's doing it, and he doesn't blame her.

so he'll just shift the conversation.]

You noticed what the flies did, didn't you?

[the framing, of course.]

[spinatalltale]

[. . .]

[he's good at that. not getting caught up in her dramatics, and not letting her derail the conversation from where it needs to be for too long. and this is an acceptable shift, one that causes all the humor to evaporate from her expression as her eyes narrow]

Of course I did. It was tough to miss.

[she doesn't have to say it. he knows, too. so she opts for something else instead]

. . . and how are you feeling about your hunch being right?

[jokered]

Like I could be a good contribution to the Professional Arsonists Association.

[he's pretty damn pissed about it, honestly. even though... hey. at least he wasn't the one being framed?

...yeah, that doesn't make it better.]

I played right into their damn hands. A lot of us did.

[spinatalltale]

[the corner of her mouth tilts upward, but it's an unpleasant smile. a humorless smile. it's almost wry, if Magilou were better at letting her feelings show]

We sure did. Pretty pathetic of us, huh?

[heh]

Couldn't even break out of the very first illusion they threw our way. The oldest trick in the book. . . and we fell for it.

[jokered]

[he nods. he can read that expression well enough too, even if the dim, bare lighting the jungle gives them.]

We never saw it coming. [c:] Even after what I said yesterday.

[his fists are shoved deep into his pocket, tightly clenched for a reason.]

All of it was on purpose, too. [framing yato, bringing him just to be framed, playing into akira's sensibilities—] Her murder was as close to his as it could have gotten.

[spinatalltale]

[. . . she swallows the dry joke that almost falls from her mouth-- was he chopped into tiny little pieces, too? she's almost surprised at her self-restraint, honestly, and for a brief moment she wonders why she even bothered to stop herself]

[eh. maybe it was just a bad joke]

I imagine we can expect more personalized attacks on the people here in the future, then. [if Haru's manner of death and the way the trial shook out wasn't an accident, then Akira was probably only the first victim] Geez, they sure do go for every single cheap shot they can find. Honestly, where's their class?

[there's some genuine irritation to those words; she dismissed any discussions of Melchior earlier, and she knows that any hits to her buttons that occurred at the trial were incidental compared to how purposefully Akira's were mashed. but the sting still lingers. the reminder of the last time she failed to see through a lie]

[jokered]

I guess that depends on how many of these they carry out themselves, or if other people here start dirtying their hands.

[he doesn't doubt it, though. even if they kill, will they be blackmailed into doing so? will they be threatened somehow to face a fate like haru or yato?

he sighs a bit, head tilting very slightly at magilou. he can sense the irritation in her tone—it seems like something about this really has managed to press her buttons, and he knows that it's something completely separate than why he's bothered by it.]

They don't have class. They don't have hearts, either.

1/2

[spinatalltale]

[she drops her gaze, eyes lidded, finger tapping against her arm. she's quiet for a long moment as she sorts out her thoughts, before. . .]

Not everyone without a heart enjoys lapping up tears of despair like they do, you know.

[her voice isn't quiet or monotone, just. . . bored, almost? nonchalant. like she doesn't really care about the implication of her words]

[spinatalltale]

But anyway, more concerning than their love for all things macabre is their knowledge of or pasts. How do you think they figured all of it out? Because I swear, if I had known that I had a creepy murdering stalker or two, I totally would've blasted them completely off the planet!!

[what a smooth subject change. sort of]

[jokered]

[akira's gaze shifts to look at magilou more directly.]

I'm only going to put up with so many vague implications before I start really looking for answers, you know.

[which is to say that if she's implying she doesn't have a heart, he's not buying it. no matter how the implications sound—her tone doesn't seem forced, but the mysterious witch thing isn't really doing it for him right now.]