CLOSED; a new apple

[wingstosee]

» WHO? Venus (wingstosee), Erika Mishima (bu773rfly), Goro Akechi (uragiru)
» WHEN? September 30, night
» WHERE? Akechi's room, then Erika's room
» WHAT? Venus finds something from home. A lot of things kick off at once.
» WARNINGS? CONTENT: Body horror, gore, insects. SPOILERS: Persona 5, Hacker's Memory, and We Know the Devil.

Comments

[uragiru]

[ he's never heard this confidence from her. she's been coaxing, at times, but not this piercing. he's vaguely familiar with the Biblical story of the serpent in Eden. ]

I...

[ the removal of his Palace, of everything that formed the foundations of it, didn't make him a different person, or a good person. self-flagellation isn't in his nature. questions of being deserving or not deserving, the pursuit of redemption, that's — he knows he's constructing that too. not to garner approval or meet some nebulous external standard, but to manage the guilt.

in all honesty, as he is right now, not remade but refocused, then— ]

Yes.

[ it's reluctant. but he is selfish at heart, and he wants... he just wants for this to be easier, that's all. something central to him has been stolen, and in its absence he feels like the net has been removed from under a tightrope he's been walking his whole life. if the devil could make him into something worthwhile, then he would let her. ]

[wingstosee]

Haha. I'm glad. Maybe that's kind of weird to say? But- I'm really, really glad.

[ for a moment, her hands hover in place - like she wants to reach out, to hold his hand in hers. but they drop back to her side after a moment, and then she refocuses her attention elsewhere: picking up the radio, gently bending it into a loop. ]

The antenna needs to make a circuit to really pick things up with enough range. Usually, we had a couple, so we could set it up as a relay? But we've only got one crystal to pick things up with, so we're kind of working with what we've got.

[ her hands keep working as she speaks, and soon she's turned the radio - if that's really what it is - into something else entirely. she lays it gingerly on the ground, fiddling with one of the wires wrapped around the galena, and takes a seat before looking up at akechi. ]

Are you okay with this?

[uragiru]

[ he sits down across from her, none of his anxiety shown on his expression — but nothing to replace it, either. there's no attempt to soften himself, to appear more approachable or charming, and in the absence of that his face is a blank slate. ]

Yeah. [ even if he doesn't really understand, fully, what all of this means, and even if he suspects this isn't what the Thieves would want him to do; even if this is selfish, or cowardly, or wrong: ] I don't know that she'll actually be able to [ fix ] help me, but — yes, I'm okay with it.

[ with his distortion gone, he hardly thinks the devil will be able to make anything worse out of him, since his heart is no longer corrupted. if she's supposed to make him happy with himself, then surely she'd have to give him something to mitigate the guilt and the unease and the confusion. and she made Venus, didn't she, who is comfortable with herself and happy and... has a kind of clarity about her that Akechi has never possessed in his life. he has no desire to be rewritten entirely. all he wants is for things to make sense. ]

[wingstosee]

[ it's only this close to him that she notices for the first time, full and clear. something's different - good? bad? she can't tell. there's a small spike of worry inside her, a flutter of butterflies that vanishes almost as quickly. the devil will know what to do. and even if she doesn't, they'll figure it out. that's something they can do now. ]

If she can't, then maybe- there's nothing wrong to begin with? [ no, that's not right- ] Or maybe that's always been the case. She's not changing us at all, she's stopping the world to let us be who we've always been.

[ she adjusts the wires, the radio coming on in a burst of static. like this, raw and exposed, it's easy to change the wavelength. she can do it with one hand, even! and with her other hand she reaches out to akechi, palm up. ]

It- works better if we hold hands. [ that sounds really fake. ] I'm not trying to be weird, I promise. Just- try to think about reaching her? That'll help the station come through.

[uragiru]

[ there's a moment where he hesitates — but it's just an awkward pause over placing his hand in hers, nothing to do with their plan. it's terribly ordinary of him in a way that he usually does his best to smooth over, tucked away neatly under the surface.

his palm settles atop hers lightly, and he wonders if he would have agreed to this if it were anyone but Venus offering just because of how ridiculous it feels with the two of them sitting here like children playing with the occult. she's already seen him drunk, at least, so this is hardly worse. ]

Alright. I'm focusing. [ that part of the instruction makes perfect sense to him. it's no different from the Metaverse and the impact thoughts have there. ] How... does this work? Does she talk to us, or...

[ Yaldabaoth wasn't interested in what Akechi had to say. maybe he should have more reservations about something with divine power reaching out to grant him some kind of gift again, but it had never been a choice, with Yaldabaoth. he saw that Akechi was angry, probably saw that he was stupid and worthless and easy to manipulate, and he'd pushed that power on him because he knew exactly how it would end. if what the Devil is offering him is a choice, then isn't that different? doesn't it matter if he chooses to walk into this with his eyes open for once? ]

I THOUGHT IT WAS YOUR TAG I'M FUCKIN DYING, MY BAD??

[wingstosee]

Sometimes? Usually. Maybe. [ she's not exactly a picture of confidence here, is she. ] I've only let her through once. Usually we skipped past, but-

[ a single fragment comes through. the words aren't intelligible through the static, but that voice - oh, that voice. venus would know the devil's voice anywhere. it's a part of her, wrapped through her and all around her and all inside her. and now, she's a part of it too.

the hand under akechi's squeezes tight. venus closes her eyes fast, focusing on that voice with all her might. she is the devil, and the devil is her. the devil wants to be let in, because she wants to be let in, and they just have to work a little farther to break that wall. her fingers twitch inscrutably, tiny adjustments to wires and wavelengths, and then- ]

There you are.
[ she sounds... soft. sad. relieved. so many things all at once. she tries to stop thinking about herself - about memories of the summer scouts, and holding jupiter and neptune's hands, and hearing the devil's voice, not just hearing it but listening, for the very first time. this is for akechi, after all, not her- ]

Oh, darling. Cry all you need. I have room for the both of you.
[ is she crying? she's smiling, so she shouldn't be crying. but she draws in one ragged breath, and then another, and by the time the tears are coming down there's no way around it. ]