towerofanimus | Taking the long road home

Taking the long road home

Characters: Anyone. Everyone.
Setting: The few days after the event, throughout the Tower as you will.
Format: Mingle! Assign your own dates/locations/etc, tag yourself, do as you do.
Summary: Jason's dead. So are a lot of other people. Fallout and picking up the pieces.
Warnings: Discussion of death and cannibalism inevitable.

[Catch-all for events following the Event. Discuss Jason's death and its consequences, come back from the dead, party?, quiver in fear?, take a long, hot bath. Whatever it is you do, do it here.]

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[Ryoji can't help but let out a small gasp as the healing kicks in, patching up some scrapes and bruises still left over. He's not sure if the internal bleeding has stopped, but he certainly feels better... especially now that Yukiko's arms are around him. He clutches to her tightly, slowly rocking her back and forth and burying his face in her hair.]

I love you too... I'm so sorry.

You don't need to apologize.

[She clings a little closer, letting him rock her. Yukiko breathes a sigh of relief after a moment, resting her head on his shoulder.]

I'm just glad you're back. I was afraid that you wouldn't be, not after all of that.

...I wasn’t sure either, to be honest. It felt so different this time, trying to come back. I guess we should have suspected that, after what we did.

[As much as Jason was a bad person, he was the only one keeping them alive right now.]

So… what happened after I died?

I was really afraid, for a while, especially when none of you were up and around yesterday.

...when you say 'different', how different do you mean?

[Yukiko takes a deep breath. How best to explain it?]

For a little while, things were chaotic. We threw everything we had at Jason, and a lot of people died. The thing that turned the tide was...well, I don't know if you know him; I don't even know Asch-san that well to be honest, but he sacrificed himself to give someone else an opening.

[She's glazing over the details; the fact that what she means is 'the guy decapitated himself' is still disturbing. Yukiko turns a little bit pale, steadying herself with another few deep breaths before she can continue.]

Then Princess Zelda took Arturia-san's sword and finished Jason off. After that, Ruana showed up, and she...well, she ate Jason's dead body, before her glamour came off. She's just a kid under all of that. A little girl. I tried to talk to her, but there was this weird pressure starting to build up. Arturia-san grabbed me and got me into the elevator, and that's that.

Well, for starters, like you said, it felt longer. I don’t really remember any part of the process. The previous times I was brought back, I could feel something pushing on me, this immense pressure from all sides, but there wasn’t any of that this time. And then when I woke up, I was more nauseous after the sleep paralysis, and you saw I was still injured. I coughed up blood as soon as I sat up.

[Ryoji listens intently, and the concern becomes more and more apparent the longer he listens. He recognizes a few of the names, but not all of them. What’s more important to him is that Ruana has the powers of another admin, and that underneath everything, she’s just a little girl… was she really all that bad, then? Surely someone that young couldn’t be that cruel…

He sighs heavily.]

I’m just glad someone got you out of there. It sounds like trying to talk to her wouldn’t have gotten you anywhere, and would have only gotten you hurt. Is the pressure from before gone now?

It was longer this time. You've been gone for two days. I was starting to get really afraid that none of you would come back at all.

[Her own concern is immediate, and comes in the form of more healing magic. Yukiko is not taking any chances, at least as far as what she can do there.]

I was...I didn't know what I was expecting when I saw Ruana, but it wasn't a little girl. Something's not right there.

[She nods.]

That pressure was gone as soon as we got out of there. I'm not hurt, there's no need to worry about that. I'm more worried about you. We should at least have this conversation sitting down, so you can rest a bit.

Two days? It didn’t feel that long… I don’t blame you for being worried, but I’m so sorry I caused you stress.

[His frown just deepens at the extra healing magic, even though it helps slightly, the more he talks, the more he’s frightening her, and he knows it. But he can’t avoid the discussion when it’s so important.]

I’m really fine, but we can sit down somewhere if you’d prefer. Don’t go easy on me, though. I need to hear about what you saw.

[He needs to know if there’s any chance Ruana isn’t really as cruel as she seems.]

Don't apologize. None of us had any way of knowing what was going to happen. You couldn't have known.

[That denial earns Ryoji a stern look. Normally, Yukiko wouldn't be so insistent on taking it easy, but who knew what kind of injuries were still healing? She isn't taking any chances.]

We're definitely going to sit down, just in case.

[She's not even going to wait to get out of the hallway, though she leads him down to the end of it first before sitting down.]

Where should I start with what I saw? I - Ruana didn't change out of her glamour until after she'd finished off Jason, so to speak. She looked like she couldn't have been more than ten years old or so, if that. I tried to ask if she was acting out something she'd seen before, but like I said, she didn't answer...

I know I couldn’t have, but I’m still sorry it happened. Shouldn’t I be allowed to feel bad about it?

[Yes, he’s trying to find a loophole. At least he doesn’t try to deny that the injury is bad enough that he needs to sit down, and he follows Yukiko to sit down with her before focusing on listening.]

That young… What do you think that means? Does she know what she’s doing, or is she just as cruel as we originally thought?

...you're right. I'm sorry.

[She's quiet for a few minutes, thinking hard.]

I was talking to someone else about it, and they think she just kind of broke, under everything. I can believe that.

I have to wonder if she's broken so far that she just can't be empathetic anymore, that she really is that twisted. It's a sad thought, because I don't want to think that a little girl can be so broken and twisted, but it's not impossible.

It’s okay. You were just worried I was trying to blame myself. I know.

[He looks away for a moment, lost in thought.]

Considering the kind of place we’re in, I think that’s a reasonable assumption, and I think we all know a place like this breaking someone to that point isn’t at all far-fetched.

[He turns back to Yukiko with a sigh.]

But we can both hope she’s not really like that. Deep down, there must be some good in her. We just have to try and find it.

...I was. I didn't want you blaming yourself.

[She frowns a bit, considering the worst.]

That's assuming she's not so broken that she can't find a way back. We have to take that into consideration. Some people...much as we want to, we can't make it better.

[She closes her eyes for a moment, remembering someone else who had broken that far. If she thinks about it too hard, Yukiko can almost hear that twisted laughter as Mitsuo Kubo was taken away in handcuffs.]

We can hope for better, of course, but I don't know. I wish I could be more confident in that.

I know… but we have to try. If we fail, we don’t say she was evil… she was just too far gone for us to help. And that’s okay.

[He wraps an arm around her shoulders, presses his nose against the top of her head to breathe in the smell of her hair.]

I understand entirely how you feel. It’s okay to be unconfident, or unsure. Just… try to let hope win out in the end.

[She nods, wrapping both her arms around him and burying her face in his scarf.]

It's true. Giving up on her now means giving up on that little bit of hope that means she might turn things around. I...I can't say I'm entirely sure about things, but I don't want to give up on that hope.

Even if we do have to say she's too far gone, we can still make our own hope, right?

Yeah. We have to keep on hoping. I know it’s impossible to be sure about things here, but you can be sure that we have to keep positive if we want to keep living.

[He smiles softly as he runs his fingers through her hair again, gently soothing her.]

[She nods, and eventually she manages a small smile.]

That's true. As crazy as things get around here, the one constant that keeps us all going is hope - no. Two constants, for me. Hope and love. As long as I remember that, I'll be okay.

[He actually laughs at that.]

Hope and love… I like the sound of that. As long as I have you, I’ll always be able to keep going. We both will.

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Taking the long road home

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