[OPEN] ❁ don't let it get the best of you, you'll make it out alive

[roseblooms]

WHO: Fawkes and YOU!
WHERE: All around Recolle during the nightmares/fog event!
WHEN: Various times in the month of October!
WHAT: Nightmares, fog encounters, and etc.
WARNINGS: Will be attached to the headers of various top-levels within!

Comments

[sotenbori]

Fawkes, stop.

[ this fog shit is getting out of hand, honestly. and the more people he can get to the better. he watches the scene horrified for a moment before fawkes starts reaching for the mirror and he doesn't know what the heck that's gonna do other than it's going to be bad. that much he's got. ]

She's tryin' ta hurt ya. Don't.

[roseblooms]

[The sound of a voice makes him stop short, looking up uncertainly with the bewilderment showing openly on his face.]

Majima...?

[I'm dying, his mother snaps, irritable at the delay. Stop wasting time! Use it, before it's too late!]

[sotenbori]

Whoever that old woman is, she ain't your mom.

[ majima walks closer to fawkes, carefully but surely. he's not about to let fawkes hurt himself thats for sure. ]

It's this fog, ya know?

[roseblooms]

No.

[He says it softly, in a voice that comes thin and weak, and turns his eyes back to the surface of the mirror where it's still shimmering with moonlight, waiting for him to make his next move.]

She's not wrong. It's my fault, so I have to...I have to...

[...What? He doesn't know. But this is right, somehow. He knows it's right, somehow, to follow through with this.

But the strange part is, it's right that Majima is here, too, making him stay his hand. That's an important part of this, too, and he doesn't understand why.]

[sotenbori]

Ya have ta what? Give your soul up ta Retrospec because they can't keep a handle on all this unreality shit?

[ he reaches over once he's close and puts his hand on his shoulder. like he's trying to ground him in whats real. ]

[roseblooms]

...I have to use this.

[His mirror. It's not shattered anymore — why? Did it mend itself so that he can use it now?]

If I use this, it'll save her life.

[He's sure of that much, at least.]

[sotenbori]

She's not real. There's nothing ta save.

[roseblooms]

[As if on cue, an agonized groan comes wafting through the air from the direction of the bed, and something in Fawkes seems to give way as he urgently turns his attention back to the mirror.]

It's my wish, Yusuke!

[...w h a t]

[sotenbori]

[ okay, time for plan b: majima pushes fawkes away from the mirror and tries to put himself between fawkes and the mirror to deter him from coming back ]

Who the fuck is Yusuke?

[roseblooms]

What?

[It works, certainly; Fawkes falls backwards from his crouch and ends up sitting outright on the rooftop, looking up at Majima with a disoriented look on his face.]

Yusuke...Yusuke is...

[Someone important, isn't he? Someone...

He's the one with the gun, I think he's the one who broke the mirror.
No, I think Hiei was the aggressor. I don't know how I know, but I'm sure that Yusuke wasn't —
He's the one who called me Fox-Boy.
He was trying to warn me, he sounded afraid — "don't move, Kurama, you're surrounded by bombs"...

Yusuke, Yusuke, who the fuck is Yusuke? Yusuke is...Yusuke is...]

He's — I used to know him, Kurama used to...

[Use it, you mother-killing parasite! snaps the woman in the bed.]

[sotenbori]

[ majima turns back to the woman, scowling ]

Shut it, can't ya see we're havin' a conversation?

[ and then back to fawkes who is giving him a lot of information in not a lot of words here but he's gotta parse out the important ones here. ]

Well I'm pretty sure Kurama's buddy Yusuke wouldn't want him ta do this shit, either.

[roseblooms]

No — she's, she's right, I thought that — what she's saying, I used to think that, Kurama used to...think...

[Abruptly, he drops his face into his hands, digging his fingers deep into his hair like he's trying to drag the memories out of his own head by force.]

But he was — wrong...

[sotenbori]

Hey, hey, stop it.

[ majima crouches down, to reach out and touch fawkes' arm. ]

It's okay, we should get ya home.

[roseblooms]

He thought...that he did this...

[The memory drags out of him slowly, inch by inch, like it's dug its barbs into him and is taking a piece of him with it as he tries to get it free.]

He thought it was his fault...that he drove her to it, that he...caused...

[sotenbori]

Ya know he's wrong. An' you're not responsible either.

[ he tries to take his arm, to pull his hands away from himself, to keep him safe. ]

Say it. Say it's not your fault.

[roseblooms]

He thought...he thought it was his fault but it never was!

[The words get faster and faster as the sentence progresses, increasing in intensity and pitch, like he's actively tearing it free from his own throat.

And yet once it's out, he seems to slump all over, exhausted but relieved and somehow finally freed. That's the moment when he leans heavily into Majima, dropping his hands and letting himself be gathered up without protest.]

It wasn't his fault. It's not my fault. It's not my fault.

[sotenbori]

[ that's good, because majima definitely pulls him close into a hug. ]

Good. We should get ya home.