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Hey, Sakamoto Ryuji here.

I can't be the only one with ass kicking on the brain after that invisible dog bullshit. What's the consensus on fighting instructors around here? Did that turn out to be a thing?

If anyone's got the time show a few moves and still taking requests, I got one of my own. I'd appreciate a few tips if you feel like sharing. I'm talking about the badasses that know what they're doing, not just the make it up as you go kind (like me). Hate to say it, but the stuff we're facing in events is a little different from what I'm used to.

Dunno what I could trade for it, but I learn fast! And I'll think of something. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

PS: And if you're looking for Akira, don't worry. Nothing bad happened to him. He just went home. Sorry.

_{[The last bit is the real crux of the message and also the thorn in its side; bundling it in with the request lessens the sharp prick of it. Not by much, but some.]}

I | Exercise facilities + outer grounds

_{[Anyone with an eye for blond phantom thieves can usually spot Ryuji adhering to a runner's training schedule, a carry-over from home. Indoors in the weight room, outdoors on the grounds, casual long distance jogs, short distance drills--he's at it most days, alternating between staving off boredom and building on his strength.

Usually time following an event are cool down days, a period to let himself recover from the trial of the week. Not this time. He keeps his foot jammed on the gas pedal with the restlessness energy of someone who has something he has to face but is taking every detour to avoid it. The request for some self-defense pointers had been practical--if the Tartarus event taught him anything (and the Asgard event before that, and the zombie event before that), he could use them--but it's also fuel for the avoidance fire.

Usually there's room for a chat in between squats on the beach or a friendly wave on a run, but don't take it personally if he seems a bit standoffish today. He's distracted, brows set in a flat line, viciously pouring energy into his routine with a nice, healthy contempt for the ground or the horizon, whatever he happens to be staring at.

If someone catches his eye, though, he'll forcibly relax, offering a smile. It comes a beat too late to be effortless, but that's hardly out of place, right? They've all been through a lot coming out the other side of the event meat grinder.]}

II | Training center

_{[Futaba. Morgana. Iwai. Yusuke. Ann. Makoto. Haru... Akira. How could he have thought this place felt small? With all of the people most familiar to him--people he'd shared the burden of events with, sat across the breakfast table with, lived with in the case of his two best friends--gone to fuck knows where, Wonderland feels infinitely massive and empty. He could handle this together. Alone, it's... it's hard. Harder than he imagined.

There's still Akechi, and isn't that the height of irony, to be the last man standing with Akechi Goro, out of everyone. He hesitates a while with phone in hand, Akechi's name in the To: field, but his hands aren't interested in sending more messages.

They want to make fists. They want to break.

Those in the training center will be privy to Ryuji, uncharacteristically stoic and grim-faced, slipping on a pair of gloves and squaring off with a punching bag with a frenetic violence to match. Either that punching bag insulted him, or someone didn't burn off quite enough energy climbing stairs in Tartarus.

The flurry is broken up only by a wince after a particularly hard punch. Peeling off his glove reveals a streak of red from split knuckles. Apparently someone also doesn't know when to quit.]}

Fuck

_{[Any gym rats handy with bandaids...? Alternatively, maybe you see him taking himself and his bloody hands for a walk to the clinic for something to wrap them with. He's probably not the only needing aftercare after that doozy of an event, even if his most recent war wounds are fresher.]}

III | Kitchen

_{[The thought of going back to his empty room in his empty section of hallway throbs worse than his bandaged knuckles. Suddenly it's like his first day in Wonderland all over again, not knowing what to do or where to park himself in a strange, unwelcoming environment.

He ends up in the kitchen, hungry but not really, searching the fridge and cupboards with a listless indecisiveness. He's probably standing in your way as you go to grab something--and will continue to stand in your way until prompted, or he notices you.]}

_{[And he'll slide to the side to let you get to your business, smile apologetic.]}

IV | Wildcard

_{[Ryuji'll be going about business as usual in Wonderland post-event, so feel free to come up with your own starter around the mansion and/or elsewhere! Or hit me up for a different one if you're not feeling the locations/prompts.]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Oh man, they're really going to have to like...actually talk about this, aren't they?

Nothing about this is fine.

She grabs a couple more bags, shoving them into her backpack, before she zips it shut. She's got enough for at least a week, so she's not going to push her luck any further.]

It's not my fault Wonderland puts all the decent food here. If I could pull it out of my room closet, I'd be doing that instead.

[She realizes she sounds a little defensive, but it's not like this is super convenient for her, either.]

And yeah, it was the easiest way to get it back home without hurting anyone, so it's just what I imagine here. I highly doubt you'd rather I wished for it in like...a water bottle or something, right?

_{[Nothing about this is fine at all, because she's a vampire. And she has fangs. And he'll remember what fangs feel like stabbing into his neck for the rest of time after meeting Shadow!Caroline. And now he's watching blood disappear into her bag like a six-pack of ginger ale in preparation for TGIF snack night.

Life is strange. But on the bright side, it's incredibly hard to feel sorry for yourself while watching blood disappearing into a bag like a six-pack of ginger ale.]}

That's... human... isn't it?

_{[He can't stop staring at the bag. Oh my god, he asked that. Why'd he have to ask that, he doesn't actually want to know these things!?]}

If the water bottle wasn't see-through, maybe!

_{[On the other hand, you can see damn well everything through a translucent bag???]}

I don't know if it's even real, okay? Wonderland conjures it out of nothing. But yeah, it tastes like it and I'm not starving to death so I don't really care what it is.

[Okay, now she's just getting frazzled. She stops herself, sucks in a breath to calm the beating of her heart, and then tries again.]

I'm not going to eat it in front of you so don't worry about it. I take them to my room so no one else has to be grossed out.

[Now she just looks downright embarrassed. She should have just come back later when no one was around.]

You don't know for sure!?

_{[What he's really thinking: ahhhhhhhh. A valiant attempt is made to get his brain around that nugget so he can stop gaping at her like she's running a television program for world's weirdest cuisine. He succeeds somewhat.]}

I didn't think this was how you got food when you were hungry is all.

_{[Well, duh, Ryuji, she's a vampire. What else is she going to eat? And as she'd said, how else is she going to eat it if not from a living, breathing, squirming source? At the uncomfortable look on her face, he shakes his head and starts over.]}

No, uh. I-it's okay. I mean, I guess you don't got a hell of a lot of choice in it if it's the only option on the menu. Sorry. I'll be cool.

_{[Read: he's not so grossed out he's going to make this worse by barfing on her shoes, anyway.]}

Do you know for sure if the burgers you pull out of there come from a real cow? I mean, they come from nowhere and I've never seen a cow anywhere.

[Just saying. Though comparing human blood to a burger is kind of...well...

..accurate for her, whoops.

She's about to make the very comment that he has running through his brain before he basically backtracks, telling her he realizes she doesn't have much of a choice. She breathes a little sigh of relief at that, a bit of her defensiveness fading in the process.]

...Thanks.

[Time for an awkward change of subject!]

So...how have you been?

That's a burger. You've got blood in a bag!

_{[A fervent whisper as he tries to do what she's asked and not bellow the truth about her biological disposition to the whole mansion. Does she poke a straw in it or pour it into a cup? How does this work...

Caroline shifting gears saves her more intrusive and possibly embarrassing questions, and Ryuji leans against a counter to consider it. Ironically, how the vampire who once attacked him stays fed is a damn sight touchy a subject than waking up one day and finding himself alone.]}

Hangin' in there. _{[It's close to honest.]} The last event, it wasn't the easiest I ever been through...

_{[Among other things.]}

[Normally, she wouldn't care too much about intrusive questions...if they were asked in a less judgemental tone, anyway. Right now she just feels like she's defending herself when she hasn't done anything wrong.

Then again, if anyone should be allowed to freak, it's him, so she's giving him a little bit of a pass.]

I think that's probably the worst one I've seen since I got here.

_{[Sorry, when it comes to Ryuji's humanity switch, it got stuck on the maximum histrionics setting as a child and stayed that way. Screeching and wild arm movements are just a day in the life.

But he gave his word he'd be cool and so he'll Try.]}

Were you okay?

_{[Natural concern, at least, doesn't need to be forced. Whatever she is, Caroline's still part of their community. He doesn't doubt vampires can be hurt just as painfully as other people.]}

Me? Yeah, I was okay. As okay as anyone can be, I mean. [She looks down at the floor briefly.] But a couple of my friends weren't. My best friend and her boyfriend died. You would know here, she's the one that was there...that night.

[She'd kept her from making a horrible mistake.]

What about you?

[The concern is mutual, at least.]

--You mean Elena?

_{[Those in Caroline's circle seem comfortable being called by their first names, and that's what he defaults to now in surprised dismay. Apparently he hadn't heard about that.]}

Shit. _{[He's seen for himself vampires are made of tougher stuff. For them to go down, it must've been bad.]} How are they? Are they okay now?

_{[He means "alive" which some days is about as close to "okay" as you can get. It hardly seems fair, switching tack to talk about his lucky streak, that he'd walked away from Tartarus mostly fine aside from a few scrapes and bruises. His wounded hands hadn't come from any fight for his life. It all seems superfluous now, in the face of another tragedy.

Clementine. Now Caroline's friends. And here he is moping about Akira going home where he'll also cheat death. Ryuji shrugs noncommittally, glancing to the side in an almost sheepish manner.]}

I didn't die, so I can't top that. Not that it's a competition. Sorry. I didn't know.

[Most people hadn't heard about it. They'd practically gone into hiding after it was over, and she didn't really blame them.]

I mean, they're as good as the can be, considering.

[She barely remembers the first time she died. It had been quick, and much less violent than anything they'd been through here. Being smothered with a pillow hadn't been pleasant, but it there were worse ways to go.

She hadn't died here. Not yet.

Caroline shakes her head forcefully, her voice firm.]

You don't need to top anything, okay? And you don't need to apologize. We've all been through a lot of crappy stuff right now and you're allowed to talk about what's bothering you too, okay? Just because someone else is hurting too, it doesn't make what you feel any less important.

_{[He forgets all about his worry over his scraped hands and crosses his arms, looking down to scuff his shoe against the edge of a counter. Considering. Yeah. Considering...]}

Heh, bad joke.

_{[A wan smile. Her vampire Shadow self--whatever you want to call it--had been as nasty as they come. As if to stand in stark opposition, her normal self has compassion to spare, for virtual strangers as well as her friends.]}

I ain't so worried about myself, y'know? I'm a pretty thick-headed guy, I pull through. I dunno how to do anythin' else. _{[A perk of being too stupid to quit. His eyes go to her bag.]} I got my problems, but I can still enjoy a burger. I think you guys got it more rough than me.

[She manages a grin at that.]

Who said anything about not enjoying a burger?

[She's teasing, mostly, though she does eat human food about as often as anything else. It felt...normal.]

And yes, I mean an old-fashioned cheeseburger.

[Not a human one. Yuck.]

_{[Well, he hadn't been thinking about people-patties before, but he sure is now in vivid detail. Ummm.]}

For the record, that ain't actually a thing, is it?

_{[He's not even sure why he's asking for confirmation from her, it's not like vampires on a liquid diet should know more about cooking people into burgers than the rest of them who forgo blood for Big Macs.]}

I asked Elena about coffee, she said that stuff don't really taste the same anymore.

_{["Anymore." That must suck, going from normal to this. He hasn't gotten the full story on how Caroline's crew ended up as vampires, and a part of him's a bit daunted at the prospect of finding out. He's going to take a wild guess and assume it wasn't because they made a informed, willing decision to gnaw on folks for the rest of their iives.]}

No, definitely not a thing.

[It's clear from her expression that even thinking about it is grossing her out, too.]

Well, it doesn't taste the same, but I got used to it? Plus it makes me feel...full, I guess, not to mention at least a little normal.

[She may like being a vampire, but there are still some things she doesn't want to have to change. She likes being powerful; she doesn't want to feel like an outsider.]

_{[Phew, thank fuck. That was going to be a whole other awkward conversation...]}

... Can I ask you somethin'? You don't, um. Have to answer if you don't wanna.

_{[After getting a sneak peek into Caroline's day-to-day routines, it's on his mind.]}

Yeah, sure. Of course. I don't mind.

[She'll decide whether she's going to answer or not after she hears the question, but chances are she won't really care.]

Been wonderin' how to ask you...

_{[He's uncharacteristically hesitant. He knows Caroline's been hurt in the past, and been hurt badly; he figures she must have had to field this question enough times to bring her to tears from people as clueless as him, but all the same, he doesn't want to hurt her more by stepping where his curiosity's not wanted.]}

You and Elena and her boyfriend... you weren't always this way, right? How did you become a vampire?

[She chews absently on the inside of her cheek; she's going to go out on a limb and assume he wants her story specifically, not just the general rules on how it happens, though they sort of go hand in hand.

Either way, it's not a happy story, but it's not one she won't tell. Honestly, it's not one she gets asked all that often, which might surprise him. This is only the second time she's had to tell it in all her time in Wonderland.]

I got into a car accident. [The specifics of how the accident occurred doesn't really matter.] I had internal bleeding and stuff, so Damon used his blood to heal me. I don't really remember that part, because I wasn't exactly awake at the time, but it worked.

[Which should have been the end of that story, but unfortunately...]

So, I was resting up, right? I couldn't just go home after some miraculous recovery because most people in my town didn't exactly know vampires were a thing. I didn't even know they were a thing yet because anything I knew about them had been wiped out of my memory. But, anyway, Damon's crazy ex from like a hundred and fifty years ago decided to drop in on me and smother me with a pillow as some kind of message to him and his brother.

[Nothing like being murdered in a hospital bed.]

When I woke up, I was in transition. I didn't know about vampires yet, so I didn't really know what was happening, but I had to, you know, feed to finish the process or I was going to die. They had blood bags in the room because I'd been getting blood transfusions when I was still messed up, so...

[She shrugs uncomfortably.]

It just sort of happened. I was super freaked out but I couldn't stop myself back then.

_{[He'd been half-wondering if this was a bit too personal a story to share--she didn't owe him one beyond what Elena had already divulged, and he didn't want to make her feel as though she did--but when Caroline starts speaking, he listens with rapt attention. If someone entered the kitchen right then, he might not have even noticed until they were on top of him again.]}

Vampire blood...

_{[Gross. But he's following along so far, understanding they're hardy creatures, capable of some weird ass shit. It also confirms Damon's been enjoying the perks of vampiredom longer than Caroline.

... After that point, though, surprise and dawning horror--a hundred and fifty years, smothers, transition--slackens his hold on the thread of the story.]}

You--had to die to get like this?

_{[It's one thing to wonder in the privacy of your own head, another to hear it confirmed. To survive a serious accident only to be fatally attacked in your hospital room and wake up with something have changed fundamentally inside you...

His Adam's apple bobs as he swallows back a taste of bile. Wonderland's resurrections are neat, clean. This isn't that.]}

[She nods. It was gross to her too, a long time ago, but she'd saved so many people with her own that it just felt almost normal now in its necessity.]

It can heal almost anything, as long as the person is still alive. They just have to be careful for a little while afterward, is all.

[Sadly, it was harder than it should be in Mystic Falls to stay alive for a whole 24 hours after almost dying a first time, but that was another problem in and of itself.]

Well, I mean, yeah. Immortal but undead and all of that, just like in the books. I mean, there's a lot that isn't actually real too, but that part sure turned out to be.

[She'd died, but that meant so had Damon, Elena, anyone from her world who was a vampire. Some of them had died more than once.

Their lives (and deaths for that matter) were super messed up.]

_{[Someone with vampire blood in them only has to be careful... until someone tries to murder them, that is.

Correction: does murder them, in Caroline's case. He can't keep his feelings off his face--queasiness ties his brow into knots. He'd asked for the story, but the ending sits badly.]}

You must have been scared...

_{[To end life violently as a human and then wake up a vampire. And to lose a mother after that...]}

[Caroline likes to think that hasn't happened the majority of the time, but it's happened enough, that's for sure.

It's a risk people are usually willing to take. Anything is better than not having a chance, right?]

Understatement. [She's not going to lie about that fact.] It took awhile to get used to everything, but I did eventually. I had a good teacher.

I'm sorry, Caroline, that's like beyond shitty.

_{[To go from a human girl enjoying her cheeseburgers, to a murder victim, to a vampire dependent on blood like something out of a movie...

With the air clear and Caroline's emotions back on, he's forgiven her for introducing him to the violent capabilities of vampires by now, but the memory only serves to punctuate how hellish her "transition" must have been. He can see why she tries to hold onto the normal things.]}

But what did you mean, you had stuff about vampires wiped from your memory? _{[It takes him a moment to string the thought together, but then he hazards a guess:]} Was it... compulsion?

_{[That's the word favored by Elena and Caroline, as he recalls. He'd been completely at her mercy when she'd used it on him, total obedience even as he'd been internally screaming. If it could override commands to one's body, what could it do to the rest of the mind...?]}

It's not so bad, I swear. I don't have to be a victim anymore.

[And, honestly, she'd do it again. She's good at this, better than most of the vampires she's met. Being a control freak finally worked out to her advantage.

It just sucks that someone as nice as him had to meet her the one time she's let her control slip because she'd been grieving...poorly.

She nods at his question.]

Becoming a vampire undid all of my compulsion. All the memories came flooding back.

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