001 💀 video

[nomorules]

_{[A camera comes to life, framing a dark canopy of tree tops high above through which peep slivers of royal blue. It's the color of the late afternoon sky, the same view anyone would be able to see through their window, but this one is almost entirely blotted out by branches.]}

This thing recordin'--?

<sub>[The video tilts down, revealing the speaker. If you've happened to misplace a loudmouth punk today, here's one in all his young, disheveled glory. Ryuji rests in the thick shade of some trees, looking weary (and maybe, maybe a little uneasy if you squint).

There's nowhere else for him to sit or stand besides the thick shade, really. Trees are clustered in suffocating closeness all around. Someone's in the deep woods.]</sub>

Uh, yeah, so. Who here's good with Boy Scout stuff? Anyone? I went to check out what's been goin' on outside and I think... I went too far into the forest. _{[Ugh, a painful admission. He sighs, chin almost on his chest.]} Everything just looks the same. Pretty sure I'm just goin' around in circles.

_{[Point blank: he's lost.]}

It's gonna be dark soon, so... Anyone know anything about orienteering?

<sub>[He's a man and he's asking for directions. Please help.]

(OOC: Action replies are welcome! Long story short, Ryuji's fallen prey to the confusing nature of the forest and will be lost until someone finds him or leads him out. Curiosity killed the city boy. :'D Please also beware that comments within may contain Persona 5 spoilers!)</sub>

Comments

WOW. WHO ORDERED THE SALTINE CRACKERS?

[jurisdick]

[ ..... well then. so that's how it was. ]

[ There's a chill that races down his spine, settling in his gut. His hands and feet, equally cold all of a sudden, remain still as his eyes sweep over the bratty blonde in front of him. How did he know? How did he figure it out? Of all the people, this blathering idiot would have been his last guess to put the pieces together. And yet there's no denying what just came out of his mouth.

His lips curl into a thin smile, on the verge of cracking into something a bit more real, darker. ]

Black Mask? Have you gone color blind, Skull?

[ He needs more context, more clues, before he says anything damning. Perhaps this was just a misunderstanding.

He remains firmly rooted to the spot. ]

they were all Akechi packed in his purse

[nomorules]

<sub>[Not even a blink. Jesus, if he didn't know any better, he'd think this guy was rubber and the rest of the world glue.

But the truth is pretty much the opposite, isn't it?

Ryuji stops a few feet shy of pulling even with the other boy, in a state of sweaty dishevelment that Akechi never quite seemed to allow himself even after their most brutal battles, but no less deterred for it. He'd never liked the guy and now after everything he finally thinks he can pinpoint why--it's that smile. The bogus, fool's gold smile hiding the real value beneath.

Ironically, the Akechi he'd liked best had been the one at the end of the line: dirty, defeated, red-handed, and honest. He wants to talk to that Akechi.]</sub>

Nah, I'm seein' clearly and I'm sayin' you can cut the shit. The others... they haven't seen your other Persona yet. The other you. But I have.

_{[The good, the bad, the ugly. The real Akechi, or at least a more real version than this, the one that's glue while his birth father is the rubber casting away a mother and son.]}

i'm not ready for this

[jurisdick]

[ There's no denying it. Not after that. Even if he had guessed he's the Black Mask, the mere mention of Loki is too close to home.

He goes quiet again, eyes only slightly narrowing. There's many ways he can go from here. The simplest? Deny it all, walk away, and ignore Ryuji's existence. Another option would be to let the rage coiling in his stomach out, lash out at him, teach him a lesson. But where would that get him? Absolutely nowhere and back on the bedside of the Thieves. That wouldn't do. He could also threaten Ryuji but - with what, exactly? His powers were dampened here, that much was fairly obvious, and he wasn't sure just how much he trusted a plan that involved attacking any of them.

So... he'd go with the last resort. His lips twist into something a bit less fake, almost sardonically amused. ]

Well then.

[Aren't you the smart one after all. Wonderful start, buddy. ]

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back, so I must ask... how do you know that?

i'll hold your hand if you hold mine

[nomorules]

<sub>[Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back. It's right on the nose and Ryuji can't help but grimace. For a second, he wonders if Akechi knows what happened on Shido's ship, really knows and is just playing another sick game of cat and mouse--

But what would he get out of pretending if he knew any more than what they'd get from shedding light on those events if he didn't?

It doesn't make any sense. Ryuji can't believe--or more like he doesn't want to believe--that Akechi could be aware of the magnitude of the second chance he's been given and choose to piss on it that completely. That just brings him back to an Akechi who's in the dark.

Which isn't much better. This is some shit, boy.]</sub>

You've been here longer, you probably got it figured out better. Timelines, right? You're gonna tell me and the other phantom thieves everythin' with your own mouth. About Shido, about what you think you're accomplishin' doin' his dirty work.

<sub>[He squares off, stance set, absorbing that caustic smile of Akechi's in order to hold tight to his composure and speak as clearly and calmly as he's able.

Time to think has brought him here. As far as he parses it, they're facing much the same dilemma as Akechi--ignore a volatile criminal while they worry about this Wonderland mess, or deal with him somehow. Forcibly changing his heart isn't an option. Vengeance isn't an option.

But on the ship... at the end... If they could just appeal to that Akechi...

Good thing an idiot's wishful thinking is Ryuji's specialty. It allows him to throw up a hand before Akechi has time to respond, to barrel on like a verbal siege weapon hellbent on taking the keep. And there isn't any getting away from him out here in the woods. Welcome to his parlor of brutal honesty, fly.]</sub>

And you're gonna listen before you jump down my throat, 'cause I've been waitin' my ass off out here to tell you this. That plan o' yours to take him down after you take us down ain't gonna work. I was there. Cards on the table, it don't go the way you want it to.

[jurisdick]

[ what the fuck?

That's really the only thought that goes through Akechi's mind after that spiel. First, what audacity it takes for Skull, alone, to say that to him. Further, what idiot would think to approach him alone with something like that? Lastly, what the hell did he mean that the plan doesn't work?

He'd call bullshit, he'd call it loudly and cruelly, but Ryuji mentions Shido. Mentions a ship and details he should have no clue about. There's a shiver. ]

Are you done yet, or should I keep listening?

[ It's on the very edge of polite, like he's a hair trigger away from snapping.

He doesn't like people knowing things he doesn't.

He's purposely collected evidence, figured things out, done all of this work to come out ahead of these morons. And for Ryuji to throw that in his face, to threaten it... ]

[nomorules]

<sub>[The question throws him a little. Huh? Well... Uh. Operation Confront Akechi is going smoothly so far as psyching himself up for a confrontation goes. Here they are. Face-to-face. Confrontational.

Mission accomplished... Now what? Ryuji lifts a gloved hand to rub at the back of his head.]</sub>

Uh-- k-keep listening, definitely!

<sub>[Letting the other come to him in a secluded area to shine a spotlight down on Shido's shitty family business had seemed like a solid start to evening the odds. But that's... about as far as Ryuji had planned. To be perfectly honest, he'd summoned his thief outfit expecting the guy to go nuclear and have to go a few rounds with Loki once the psychotic black cat was out of the bag.

Where's Makoto when you need a good strategy for taking care of baddies? Makoto and a bottle of water--two things he could really use right now, damn it.]</sub>

Beats the eff out of me what's goin' on with time in this place-- _{[Or how Akechi's still standing after that last ringing gunshot.]} --but if I'm from the future, then you outta know there's no point tryin' to screw the Phantom Thieves in the present.

_{[He locks eyes with Akechi, militant in his matter-of-factness, but not hostile. Subdued, almost. Reined in. He's concerned about a fight, but this had never been about starting one the Thieves' end. There are innocent people in this world and back in theirs who'd suffer for it.]}

We're... not enemies.

_{[... Anymore. Are they now? Were they ever? It takes two to tango, and they'd only acted to get out of the way of Akechi's runaway crazy train before they were flattened by it.]}

[jurisdick]

[ from the future.

he wouldn't have believed that load of hot-headed crap had he not witnessed firsthand the effects of time here. after all, the rest of the thieves didn't even remember their time together. they didn't remember the casino. so for ryuji to be even further ahead of them? it was plausible. and it was grating. because that meant someone knew, and someone knowing was bad. especially a loudmouth.

akechi does quirk a brow at the last remark. for now that'll capture his whole, undivided attention. ]

What do you mean? I was fighting alongside you and the others before coming here.

[ he says it cooly, though he's fairly sure that ryuji won't believe it. he stares back at him, not quite afraid of the eye-contact. ]

I would never have labeled us enemies.

[nomorules]

<sub>[Is this how it's going to be? Akechi's just going to keep acting the role of good detective and good teammate? Can't say he's surprised by the careful wall of neutrality--Akechi had always been a tricksy bastard from day one, playing his cards close to his chest.

Long before that, even. Akechi had awoken to his powers long before Akira had, after all. He's the grand master at keeping secrets.]</sub>

No?

_{[Ryuji crosses his arms, leaning his weight back on his good leg, bad one bent at the knee. It looks like a relaxed downshifting of gears, but so often when he's butting heads with someone or something there's an obstinacy to his casualness, just as there is now.]}

So you betray your friends?

_{[Maybe Ryuji had been wrong to use the term "enemies"--it implies importance, a certain respect between equals. For Akechi to have set them up just to watch them fall, they'd been more like bowling pins standing between Akechi and his perfect score.]}

[jurisdick]

[ friends?

that's laughable. akechi's lips draw into a thin line, pursing, but he doesn't say anything for a few moments. he just watches, gaze washing over ryuji's expression, studying it in a sense. he isn't sure why the vulgar boy is so obstinate about this. didn't they all dislike him? parade around pretending to care? because that's what it was, right? those few weeks? all a stupid act to save their own asses? pathetic. ]

Is that what I was to you all?

[ it's a calm, casual question, his hands going back into his pocket. he's purposely answering the question on his end. it's too close to the chest.

so instead, he tips his head back over his shoulder, into the bramble of darkness, twining branches and croaking frogs. ]

We should start heading back before it gets dark. I don't trust my sense of direction enough to traverse these woods without the sun as guidance.

[nomorules]

_{[Ryuji's features pinch. That there, folks, is the smell of bullshit, and boy, it reeks.]}

Don't gimme that. You can't have it both ways, Crow. We both know all you cared about was stringin' us up for your crimes--you gotta give a little to get a little if you wanna have teammates who trust you.

<sub>[But experience has taught him you can get blood from a stone if the stone takes a good, hard look in the mirror. Although this is the same guy who claimed friends are trash and committed unforgivable acts for selfish reasons stacked on someone else's even more selfish reasons, there's still hope to throw him off his one-man wrecking ball line of thinking.

There has to be. To change his fate, at the very least.]</sub>

Hey-- Nobody wants to get back more than me, but don't go changin' the subject. Does that mean you're gonna work with us?

_{[Akechi hadn't walked out of the trees carrying a loaded gun, so Ryuji supposes that's a start.]}