[SEMI-CLOSED] they did the bash, they did the bingo bash

[covenantal]

WHO: Yu Narukami and others!
WHERE: All over the city.
WHEN: Anytime throughout the month of July!
WHAT: Just one more bingo thread catch-all.
WARNINGS: Nothing as yet, though there may possibly be mentions of death/murder.

[ As with others, this is just a general catch-all post for bingo threads! My bingo card is here!

If you'd like to make any other plans, please feel free to PM me or hit me up on plurk at izanagis! I will not be trying to fill further bingo squares of my own, but I am happy to help others fill theirs so ping me if you'd like to make any plans! ]

Comments

MINAKO [ share a difficult Retrospec memory ]

[covenantal]

[ Yu finds himself lost in thought as he walks back to his shared dorm with Souji this evening; there's quite a bit on his mind. These strange bingo cards that everyone is still filling out, and a memory he dreamed of last night still clings to the edges of his consciousness; it had involved a boy, whose name he now knows, and a bunny...

So lost in his thoughts is he that he doesn't notice he's not alone on the sidewalk -- not until he lightly bumps someone's shoulder. ]

Ah, sorry--

[ A blink, and: ]

Minako-senpai?

[complementing]

Hi, Yu-kun. Fancy meeting you here.

[She'd been thirty steps away from him, waving until it was obvious he wasn't going to notice her, and so sped up her steps so she could 'bump' into him halfway.]

Are you busy right now? I was about to go grab some dinner, but looking at you so deep in thought makes me want to take a walk.

[covenantal]

[ The way his expression shifts is subtle. ]

I don't want to keep you from dinner. I'm alright, really.

[complementing]

Yu-kun.

[She says it ever so gently, reaching out and looping her arm through his.]

Why don't you come and get dinner with me instead?

[covenantal]

[ It's even more subtle, the oh so slight jump he gives when she loops her arm through his.

But he lets it happen, and stares at her like he's maybe never seen her before, and then lets his edges all soften, a little. ]

Yeah. Alright. But it'll be my treat, okay?

[complementing]

Well, since you insist.

[She pats his arm affectionately, and then guides the way in the direction he'd come from, towards the smattering of restaurants along this street.]

You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, but if something's on your mind and you need to get it off your chest...I'm here to listen.

[That's her unspoken promise to him.]

[covenantal]

... I know.

[ Very gently, but also very warmly. Affection for Minako surges in his chest, and it makes the corners of his eyes crinkle. ]

I woke up with a new memory this morning. Nothing bad. It just ... made me think, that's all.

[complementing]

[She hums softly, glancing up at him with a little crease between her brows.]

I'm glad it's nothing bad. [God knows people have been getting terrible memories as it is, she doesn't want him to be added to that list.] But it must have been important, to distract you so much. What was it about?

[covenantal]

[ He's quiet for a moment, gaze falling to the ground as he thinks it over. ]

A friend. I still don't know his name, but I know a little about the sort of person he is, now. I had a memory about him. It just ... made me think that people can be different from how they seem.

[ Rough on the outside, but on the inside, truly kid... that's the sort of person ... that blond boy was. ]

[complementing]

Mmm. Many people are like that, for better or for worse.

[It certainly applies to her, to him-- to any one of their friends and loved ones.]

There's that saying in America to not judge a book by its cover, right? I think that taking the time to actually read the book is important too. [She shoots him a little smile.] Did you get to do that with him?

[covenantal]

... I think so, [ he murmurs pensively, after a moment. ] He was saying something about a hospital... it seemed like he deeply cared for other people, even if he had the outward appearance of a punk. I remember thinking that he was a sincerely good person...

[ After a pause, he'll shake his head, and smiles back at her. ]

I just hope I can live up to being that sort of ... thoughtful person.

[complementing]

I think you already are, just by being willing to consider him a friend.

[covenantal]

... Minako-senpai, can I ask you something?

[ Thoughtfully, letting his gaze fall away from her face. ]

[complementing]

Of course you can. What is it?

[She, on the other hand, turns her head to look at him properly.]

[covenantal]

... you told me once before about how the other Minako was a leader.

[ He frowns a little at the ground. ]

I think that might be true of me, as well.

[complementing]

[She's quiet for a moment, considering the stop sign they've paused at.]

Does that bother you like it did me?

[covenantal]

[ Bother him?

... ]

It's an ideal I want to try to live up to. I don't know if I can be a leader, but I want to try. I feel like I have to try.

[ A tilt of his head. ]

It ... wasn't a happy memory. I was being asked, as leader, to make a very difficult decision.

[complementing]

...I think leadership is a role that nobody can know how they'll handle until they're actually leading. The instant you're responsible for someone else, for multiple people, it becomes a balancing act of long and short term goals, of other people's wishes against your own, against someone who might have authority over you and someone who you feel close to. There are so many sides to take into account. Difficult decisions become a daily occurrence, and some days, you can't please everyone. [She looks up and meets his gaze. She can't deny that there's a fair bit of the other Minako, a proper leader, in those words, but she's speaking from her own experience, too, from her years of volunteer work.] Whatever difficult decision you had to make, I'm sure there were many more behind you, and many more to come. If you still want to try, even knowing all that, then you can definitely be a leader, Yu-kun.

[covenantal]

[ .... ]

If you--

[ A long pause. He's never told anyone this. Not Souji, not Yosuke, not Yukiko, no one. No one knows. He hasn't wanted to admit to it out loud.

Yu swallows, and his jaw is very tight. ]

I want to protect them. The others.

[ Even from themselves. Even from me. ]

... I want to know what you think of it, but you have to swear to me you won't tell the others what I'm telling you right now. Swear.

[ It's clear at least that he's dead serious. ]

[complementing]

[Her eyes flicker over his expression, taking in how tense he's gotten, the edge in his voice. He worries her so much. But there is no hesitation when she replies. Right now, she is here for him, and no one else.]

I swear.

[covenantal]

[ He looks at her for a long moment.

And then he looks away. ]

People died.

[ Soft, plainly stated. ]

At least two. I don't remember all the details, I just know they were killed. We must have cornered the person we thought was the killer... because I think we were debating what to do with him.

[ A longer pause. ]

If we should kill him ourselves, to stop him.

[ Saying the words out loud feels a lot like pulling out his own teeth with a pair of pliers. But it also feels, once they're out, like he can actually breathe again. He's been holding onto this secret for months.

The secret that he still keeps is that Yosuke was the one to say those words. ]

... I remember feeling unsettled. Like something was wrong. I don't know what answer I gave. I want to think it was the right one.

[complementing]

[Her eyes widen, and then her expression crumples. It takes her a long moment to formulate the thoughts, and even as she's speaking her words are slow and deliberate.]

Yu-kun. Right and wrong...those things, in the situations our past selves keep getting into, they're hard to define, and without more context we can't say for certain either way. Even if we could, more than that, whatever decision you made, it was your decision. I know that you didn't make it lightly.

[Needing to make that decision in the first place, though...that's what unsettles her most of all. That no one was there to help Yu and the others, that they felt they were the ones who had to settle the issue...she knows that he's considered an adult now, but as his senpai, she can't help but want to lift that burden away, to let him keep living as carefree as he can. Isn't it hard enough, dealing with the normal worries and anxieties of their every day lives?

But that isn't giving him a chance as the leader he said he wanted to be, and so she says nothing of this, her grip on their looped arms tightening.]

I believe in you, and in the other Yu-kun.

[covenantal]

[ He's quiet for a long moment.

And then, with perhaps more strength than she might expect, though his voice is still quiet: ]

And I believe in my friends. Whatever happened in that hospital room... I believe we did the right thing. Even if I don't know for sure... I have faith in them. In us.

[ He'll look at her now, clear and thoughtful, but not scared. ]

I don't think we're killers.

[complementing]

Good. I'm sure your friends will answer that belief and prove you right.

[It's a heavy topic, and knowing Yu, he'll probably mull it over and pick at it for a long while to come. A few words from her are hardly going to clear his conscience. It's certainly not going to clear hers. If anything she's more worried about him than ever. Killing and murder...it's ending the life of an actual living being, not just tiny bugs turned giant, or Shadow monsters. An irreplaceable human life. Even if that life has taken others, she doesn't want the act on his hands, on his friends' hands.

But he seems lighter, his words laced with conviction. If she helped get him there, that's better than nothing for now. Minako gives him a small smile, gently nudging him in the side.]

Aren't you glad I invited you to dinner with me now?

[She doesn't know if there's more to the vision or not, but it's an out for him, if he wants it to be.]

[covenantal]

[ There's a pause,

but finally, Yu will smile. It's mostly with his eyes, the way they go gentle and sweet. ]

I'm always glad to be with you, senpai.

[ It's as true a conviction can be. When he's with Minako... no matter how dark the world is, it feels like she brings with her an inextinguishable light. ]