week four ♡ wednesday ♡ magilou

[jokered]

[the problem with akira is that even if he knows whatever is behind that door is bullshit... he's going to open it anyway.

and even though he knows that the sight before him has to be bullshit, it hits him hard in the chest. futaba, bloodied, clawed up and breathing. sojiro, on the edge of death—]

Futaba... Boss...

[it's just an immediate hard edge of panic, even if his brain tells him it's an illusion of sorts. that's his family, being attacked by his other family, and it comes out with no authority, only a panicked disbelief when speaks again.]

Morgana, did you really—

[but this isn't his morgana. this isn't the well-spoken catbus boy that taught him the tricks of the phantom thief trade and has been his bro for all these months. this morgana is feral and has it out to take down any threats. he lunges towards akira, starting with a swipe to the face...

and though akira's reflexes are swift to miss having an eye taken out by those claws, they still cut deeply into his cheek, causes akira to hiss out a sound of pain and jump back.

magilou might not be able to step into the room, but she can call akira's attention enough as a trigger for him to lure akira (and the feral morgana) out, instead.]

Comments

[spinatalltale]

[more mind games. more illusions. more reasons to question the very fabric of reality this island is built upon]

[Magilou doesn't open hers and Laphicet's door. this isn't a trap she wants to fall into-- not yet. which means, when Akira darts into his own room of illusions, she's there to watch the whole thing]

Whoa! What are you doing?! Are you an idiot!

[she can't enter his room, but she does bolt toward it, arms raised as high as her voice in hopes of catching Akira's attention]

Leave it alone!

[jokered]

[he is, in fact, an idiot.

it was hard to help, even though he knew that it was all bullshit—his family comes first in such a way that his heart definitely acted first.

but hey. at least magilou's voice gets through to him, and he'll back up towards the door, hand over his cheek, which is definitely bloody now. backing up, backing up—

morgana is still trying to make another lunge for him, which he only manages to evade from pulling his other arm up—not great for his blazer, but it doesn't totally penetrate the skin underneath, at least. much as it pains him to do so, he shakes morgana off, knocking him back so he has time to edge closer to the door—the illusion still isn't breaking, even though he's more than aware it's bullshit.

but also his face hurts, so what the fuck.]

[spinatalltale]

[she knows what kind of heart he has, so ultimately? she isn't surprise that it urged him into leaping through the door right into the belly of the monster]

[but a heart like that can get someone killed, and she thinks it'd be silly for him to die at the hands of a false reality. she skids to a halt near the door, hand coming to rest on the frame. she balances on her heels, like she wants to dart inside to drag him out, but there's some invisible force stopping her from doing just that]

[so all she can do is yell]

Just run, you idiot! It can't get you if I close the door in its face!

[jokered]

[he's coming, he's coming! he was hoping that would do it, but he still doesn't want to turn his back on morgana, just as a safety precaution.

so he leaps back a couple of times, and just as he passes the door's threshold, morgana lunges—

and the goes up into a puff of smoke, along with the illusory corpses of sojiro and futaba do as well. it mitigates the need for magilou to slam the door shut, but she can anyway while akira catches his breath and.

notices how much blood is on his hand. and.]

...That's going to leave a mark.

[spinatalltale]

[she definitely slams the door shut, more out of a symbolic gesture of protest than anything else, and then whirls around to face him. the blood and scratches don't bother her-- she's seen much, much worse, after all-- but nevertheless she finds herself heaving an annoyed sigh]

Going to leave a mark? I'm pretty sure it already has.

[geez!!]

[flaps her hands at him in a, "here, lean forward, let me see" kind of gesture]

[jokered]

[they've definitely seen worse in the last couple of week. akira's wincing more because it's the sting of a deep cat scratch mark than anything else.

probably deep enough that he'd have been dragged to the hospital for stitches in a normal situation; this was feral and vicious compared to normal defensive or accidental scratch, after all. but akira will lean forward, crouching down a bit to her height and pulling his hand away so magilou can see the damage.]

[spinatalltale]

[ouch]

[for not the first time since arriving here, Magilou has found herself wishing she had her healing artes. they'd make quick work of a wound like this one. but she has neither magic nor first aid supplies, so the most she can do is lift her thumb and swipe it gently across his jawline, underneath the scratches, to wipe some of the blood away]

On the bright side, I hear facial scars are all the rage these days.

[. . .]

Was that your mascot character?

[jokered]

Now I can look like the hardened criminal I am.

[dryly. still, he allows her to wipe some of that blood way; the scratches are deep, but it's not the kind of blood loss that will make him pass out or anything. it's probably just in need of a little care.

though they can't really do all that much about it.

he sighs, and hums out a sound of confirmation.]

In appearance. But Morgana would never do that.

[spinatalltale]

[hopefully the scratches won't get infected before they can get out of here]

[her fingers linger on his cheek for a few moments, cleaning away as much blood as she can, before she withdraws. NOW HER HAND IS COVERED IN HIS BLOOD. . . oh well?? oh well]

Another illusion, then. [a hum of her own] A little harsher than the last time.

I don't know what to think about them escalating like this.

[jokered]

[in any case, he's appreciative of this. he'll reach out a little, offering the sleeve of his blazer.]

Wipe your hand on this. Just make sure you vouch for me if anyone gets suspicious of it. [though it's. you know, a black blazer, so it's not like the blood will show very easily on it anyway.]

They're trying to find more ways to shake our resolve. [though he shakes his head.] But I think all it's doing is making people wonder what's even real anymore.

[gestures to both the room and his injury. it was an illusion, but he's still hurt—and the beach is nowhere to be found. where are they? how did they get here? suddenly his theories floated last night about it being a simulation feel even more viable.]

[spinatalltale]

[she stares at his blazer for a moment. . .]

[and then promptly goes to wipe her fingers on the nearest white wall. BLOODY HANDPRINTS FTW]

Honestly, I'd rather not risk it with this group. Not after last week.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

If this whole game is one of those "simulations" you talked about the other night, I'm going to be a little pissed.

[WASN'T MELCHIOR ENOUGH]

[jokered]

[okay, that makes him snort a little.]

Fair enough. They might not trust us together anymore as it is.

[since apparently calling into question them being together of dieday happened, even though they're. together a lot of the time? and have been since they met? it's fine.]

I don't know if it is, but... it definitely feels like reality is being tampered with. Really injuries lingering from obvious illusions. Wherever this place is. The nature of life and death.

[ugh.] There's something wrong with it.

[spinatalltale]

[LOOK SHE DOES NOT TRUST PEOPLE AT ALL. and she absolutely would believe they'd call him into question even if she vouched for him]

Ain't that the truth. And I don't even have any theories about what knocked it all out of whack, either.

[she wipes the last bits of blood from her hand and flicks out her fingers, just to make sure they're clean]

I wonder if the volcano spirt Battler mentioned has something to do with it. But I feel like the only people who are really in a position to figure it out are those with roles.

[jokered]

[at that, he sighs a bit.]

Probably. It doesn't even seem like they get all the information they need. If we can trust what Battler and Jack said, at least.

[he feels doubtful even the roles would be told that much, but maybe that's just his distrust for people in power talking over actual rationality?]

But if it's all illusions or simulations, there has to be a way to break it or get out of it, I'd think.

[spinatalltale]

[heh]

[a thought suddenly occurs to her, and judging by the curl of her smile, it's not a pleasant one]

What if that method is death?

[jokered]

[something something death is a form of salvation for some, something something a zaveid speech.]

You've considered that too, huh. Death might actually be the only right way out.

[spinatalltale]

[remember the sad story about the dragon?]

[yeah]

If nothing is real on this island, then there'd be little point in us trying to keep our illusory selves alive.

[but, that said. . .]

It's a risky hypothesis to test, though.

[jokered]

There aren't many safe ways to test that out short of screwing each other over.

[...]

Hard pass.

[spinatalltale]

Same, honestly!

[. . .]

For now, I suppose.

[she can't make any promises that something won't happen to change her mind, but. potential illusion or not, she's not about to throw her life away pointlessly]

[jokered]

Let's see if we get some confirmation on that before we make any decisions on how to deal with it.

[that seems like the better option here.]

[spinatalltale]

Mmm! Right now, all we can do is take more shots in the dark. And that gets old after a while, you know?

[she's pretty tired of doing nothing but bounce around theory after theory]

[jokered]

Yeah, it does. Most of this bullshit's already pretty old.

[again, gesturing toward his face, which is probably going to scar. his poor, beautiful face.]

I just wish we knew how it worked. They said they brought people back when they "won," but if they ended up how things have been here—

[mutilated, burned, missing entirely—] It's hard to think that there's not something bigger here.

[spinatalltale]

[LADIES WILL LOVE YOU FOR THOSE SCARS, AKIRA]

Mmm. And for most of us, the concept of bringing someone dead back to life is a foreign one. After all. . . if it were that simple, then people wouldn't grieve when loved ones die back home.

How does one revive the dead, anyway?

[jokered]

Dead is pretty final where I'm from. Curing a knockout, sure. But... dead is. Well.

Dead.

[so...]

I wonder what that would make any of this, really.

[spinatalltale]

Maybe we've been dead all along. . . and this is the afterlife.

[stop it with the morbid theories Magilou!!]