| Rattled Skull and Burning Lungs; [Ask First] | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 14 2014, 09:23 PM (493 Views) | |
| The One True Nobody | Feb 14 2014, 09:23 PM Post #1 |
|
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
|
The girl had black hair and she could feel her head buzzing and she stumbled as she walked. She was wearing jeans and a jacket and a pretty nice-looking scarf, which she instinctively pulled tighter with one hand to guard her sopping-wet face from the biting cold. Her clothes were dark and damp with water and the air was ice. Her body was shaking, shivering, and every so often her feet stumbled or her teeth clattered. There was a satchel strapped to her right leg just below the belt, but whatever had been inside had fallen out in the river. Where had she been going? She couldn't remember. Something about getting stronger... She was having trouble holding onto anything right now. She'd been going to do what? Fight something. She'd been looking for a fight. Maybe that was why she was in the bad part of town? Maybe it was why her head felt like a shaken Maraca. But it felt like there was a big hazy blank space between where she was and how she'd gotten there from her house. She didn't normally walk through the backstreets to get to the ruins. Normally, she walked around them. Her boots sent little splatters of river-water along the pavement as she walked, looking very much like a drunk. Her head felt rattled and her thoughts didn't make much sense, but the worst thing was her chest. It felt like her lungs were on fire. She coughed again. When she'd coughed at first, she'd coughed up water. Where had she been--? For that matter, what time was it? She reached for her satchel, and realized again that it was empty. But now she remembered one of the things that had been in there: her phone. Dammit. She didn't have enough money to replace that, and she would die before she begged any more money from her parents. A girl had to have some pride and her desire to see them dead was the only pride she had left to cling to. Nishiyo Sadako swore in a his under her breath and reached up to brush a pesky flop of wet hair out of her eye. That's right. I was going to the ruins. I was going to get stronger. So I would have more options for when I finally wipe them all from this Earth... But what had happened between then and now? The streets were dead silent, and pitch-black. She tried to get a handle on her surroundings, but her uncooperative brain refused to make sense of the unfamiliar slum architecture. It had to be past midnight, she thought. Or maybe it was even as early as two or three in the morning. Wasn't exam day tomorrow? No, no, exams had already happened. She was just waiting for scores to be posted in a week... The drenched, drunken-looking girl found herself stumbling toward a wall, a wall to some house or building. She wondered if she was near Moonview Street, where her sister lived, and concluded that no, she couldn't be. It wasn't that close to the river and she'd barely left the river a few blocks ago. She slumped to the wall and leaned against it, pressing her forehead against the side of the building, but then she withdrew it sharply, feeling the cold lie a tongue on a flagpole in the winter. She pushed away from the wall but staggered back into it, and before she knew it she was standing with her back to the wall, hugging her arms and shuddering. "W-w-when I--" she heard herself say, "--w-when I get my hands on you, Matsum-m-m-moto!" Yes, that was right, she remembered now. This was all her fault. That Kuro Matsumoto...! |
![]() |
|
| Exodin | Feb 16 2014, 09:59 PM Post #2 |
|
MAHHA
|
Jiro Takenaka wouldn't call his nightly walks since he'd started the Moksa project soul searching. Someone much more philosophical might, but Jiro thought of it as nothing more than figuring shit out. His lovely orange leather jacket was worn that night, along with some clothing that clearly said he had some sort of money to him. Maybe getting into a fight back her was what he was looking for? There was one question that consistently plagued his mind. Did he actually...did he want to continue the violence against Nakamura? Had the older boy suffered enough? Part of him insisted that he finally had a person to point all of the anger at. Someone he could blame for the way he felt, and for the way he was. Why his life was ruined forever. The cold was just the sort of thing he needed. It always seemed to help him think. Cut through all of the crap and isolated him from the world in a chilly aura. He wasn't above everything, but he felt detached. Like he could step outside of himself and actually objectively think about things for a while. He'd contemplated going to the ruins for a fight, maybe let out some of his aggression that way but Kamina still refused to cooperate with him. So instead, he walked with nothing but the very same knife he'd stuck Nakamura with in it's sheath on his belt. He could hear his own footfalls, a dull thudding against the ground. The thing that brought him back to reality, was the very bad looking sight of a girl drenched in water. "Hey, hey lady put this thing on!" He swiftly approached the wet girl while taking off the jacket and holding out to her at arms length. The impulse to help had been so sudden and swift, he hadn't even really realized what he'd offered before he'd already offered it. "Come on, it should help you warm up a little." |
![]() |
|
| Nonsequitur | Feb 16 2014, 10:28 PM Post #3 |
|
Yellow Bubblegum
|
She stepped like a zombie. Eyes forward, steps stiff and rigid. One after another. She was in a trance, and it all started with two simple words in the middle of the night. 'It's time.' And before she knew it, Mia Sato had been dressed, gotten her knife and was sneaking off to the ruins from her home. It was almost as if it was on auto-pilot. She wanted to object, especially since she was dimly aware the chill of the night actually hurt her despite her coat. But, at the same time? She didn't. She could have stopped any time, she was in control, but there was a feeling inside her, welling up in her chest, something like a distant familiar but half forgotten voice calling out to her. She wanted to see what was on the other end. She couldn't make out a thing of it, but it showed promise. "Hmm? What?" She stopped after she plotted along past just another set of blurs in the night. No, that…that voice. She'd heard it before, what was he saying? Mia's eyes shifted from glassy and unfocused to quite lucid as she turned her head. There was that Jiro Takenaka, right? He was there that other night? Shit, he probably is going to think she has a thing for getting into trouble in the middle of the night. Does she…? She decided then and there, it didn't matter. And that other girl? A third year? From Osaka, right? Seemed like the type to have to wear the hottest things and always had some catty comment ready. It normally wasn't worth it to get to know that kind of person. Who needed that kind of negativity? So, anyways, whatever they were in the middle of doing, she just lurched past like the mummy, then just snapped out of it looking at them. Yeah, that wasn't awkward at all. 'Doesn't matter. Here's just fine. The boy's fine but it's not appropriate in mixed company.' |
![]() |
|
| Natscookie | Feb 18 2014, 04:22 PM Post #4 |
![]()
Shitpost Senpai
![]()
|
Toki sighed irritably as his footsteps echoed throughout the (mostly) empty street, scratching the right side of his face with a sore hand. The sound of his fingers brushing against his unshaven facial air was rather unpleasant to his ears - then again, everything about that day was as usual, and he just couldn't care for it anymore. His mother had sent him to do some typical delivery grunt work - apparently, portion of their newly purchased goods was faulty. So Toki had to drive the truck back himself to the storage and retrieve proper goods, before returning back to his bar and refilling their stock. Having caught wind that his mother planned to have him work a double shift that night, however, he conveniently decided to slip away before she could ask him to. The man needed a break, after all! He found himself not straying awfully far, instead exploring the few corners and alleys around his neighborhood. Perhaps he'd run into something interest. Maybe he'd spot some sort of shop or arcade open he could waste some time in. Anything but work. And soon enough, he heard a commotion coming from a nearby alley. Despite it being the dead of the night, Toki's eyes were well used to the street's darkness due to his job's excellent hours. Seeing someone else jog in that direction as well, his legs moved faster to the same spot than he realized. Would you stop pulling the goody two shoes move? Getting bored in here... "You okay?" He voiced out once reaching the pair. The girl was soaked from head to toe... No, of course she wasn't okay. He wanted to facepalm at his own idiocy hard enough so his brains would come off the other side of his head, but there were more important things to take care of. He took off his jacket as well - at least it wasn't his typical blazer - and handed it to the unknown girl, while exchanging a glance with the much younger boy there. Perhaps he should take them to the bar? Sure, it wasn't quite the optimal environment, but at least it was rather warm in that place. |
![]() |
|
| The One True Nobody | Feb 18 2014, 05:35 PM Post #5 |
|
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
|
Nishiyo almost didn't notice Jiro, until he was wrapping something around her and saying something. She flinched and jerked away, swearing under her breath. "Don't touch me, you--!" she snarled, ready to defend herself, summon her Persona right there on the side of the road if it was necessary, and fuck the rest of the Persona-user community, but-- That was when she noticed it was a jacket. A dry, thick layer of jacket between her wet clothes and the cold night air. She focused on the boy's face. Another approached. And there was a girl with them, who just seemed to have swayed in like a zombie. Well-meaning, unfamiliar faces. Three of them. Sudden. Like luck had decided to throw her a bone, or perhaps the probability-warping force beneath the city had deemed that she wasn't meant to die tonight and had taken all the measures it could to prevent it. Could that be true? Could luck be keeping her alive? Keeping her alive so she could finish her task before she was finally and inevitably removed from the face of the Earth? "Ha... sorry..." she breathed. "...Yeah, I'm... okay, I guess... more okay than dead, haha... ha... oh god..." And she let herself fall to her knees and hunch under the jacket. She didn't even need to pretend to look pathetic and pitiable like this, all she had to do was act the way she felt. She was still shivering and shuddering, but the jacket was a help. "...They can't've followed me all the way down the river, right?" she murmured, as much actually wondering about the answer to that question as saying it so the others would know she was in danger. "...No, they can't've... prolly... think I drowned... maybe..." Kuro Matsumoto, certainly. She had put a bullet in Nishiyo's head and Nishiyo had fallen out of sight, into the river, hopefully too fast for Matsumoto to see that the bullet hadn't actually entered her head. Her tail, though, the tail that her family had set after her-- Had seen her take a bullet to the head and fall in the river. And didn't know a thing about magic-users, much less physical immunity! Nishiyo's head was clearing, and with it, tentative excitement rose. She could use this! She could use this! Had Kuro Matsumoto unwittingly made things this much simpler?! "...Hide... n-ne-eedta h-hide..." she stammered out through her shivers, closing her eyes and hunching down still further. Ha! This was perfect! This was perfect! |
![]() |
|
| Exodin | Feb 18 2014, 09:13 PM Post #6 |
|
MAHHA
|
"Hey, whoa there it's alright. None of us are going to hurt you. Just calm down, what happened? You said hide? Why do you need to hide? Just keep the jacket on alright? I don't need it." The look from the older man did not go unnoticed by Jiro. The way she painted the picture, or at least from what she mentioned. The girl was in danger. Or at least she had been. That was when he heard the other feminine voice. He turned to look and...that was that Mia girl. The one he'd help rescue during her awakening. "Hey, hey walk buddy! What's the deal? Mind coming over here? We think this lady needs help! Hey lady, what's your name? Do you have anyone we can contact?" So what, there was himself. Mia, and....whoever this dude was. He was pretty sure he could go home and scrounge up enough cash for this older girl to hole up in a hotel for a day or two. It helped that he knew where Dad's 'emergency' money was hidden. Why was he helping so suddenly anyway? Trying to show himself that maybe, he could be more than an angry asshole that liked hurting people all the time? Or was it that he saw a person that was frightened, alone and sopping wet and he actually wanted to help without any ulterior motives? |
![]() |
|
| Nonsequitur | Feb 18 2014, 09:31 PM Post #7 |
|
Yellow Bubblegum
|
"That's Nishiyo Sadako. She's a third year…I think." There wasn't any malice in that, or any recognition other than another face at school. She looked to the river and paused. "I guess that depends on 'they' If they're the kind of people who won't stop until they've recovered a body, well, we're downstream from them, right…?" If she was being chased by someone who wanted her dead-heavens forbid- The first thing she'd do is give them a false trail. "If you want them to make sure they don't find you, you have to make them think that you're going one way, when you're going the other." She was getting an idea… "Hey, Senpai, can I borrow your wet jacket? I think we might give them the shake, who's after you anyways, guys in Black Hoods…?" Honestly? She was just trying to test the waters, Jiro was a user, and Toki too, if they all had their little magic powers and mind demons that made everything totally simpler. So, if she got the jacket, she submerged it in water, got it good and wet, ran with it, let it drip heavily at a couple of doorways, then lost it behind a dumpster? If it worked, it'd look like Nishiyo just ran like mad from the water and was hoping, and failing, to hide from them in an alley. "Hey, Toki, you know a place we can hold her up for a bit?" She smiled, despite the fact that Lif was still full of that irritating urgency and wouldn't say a damn thing about why. |
![]() |
|
| Natscookie | Feb 19 2014, 05:05 PM Post #8 |
![]()
Shitpost Senpai
![]()
|
After his jacket was taken, Toki took a step back to give Nishiyo some room to just breathe. Being crowded when feeling that bad wasn't the best of things, plus he'd get in the way, not having any sort of expertise or common sense with such situations. "Huh? Me?" He blinked towards Mia, only then actually noticing he recognized her. The man nodded, pointing his thumb back out to the end of the alley. "Yeah, my family bar's open at this hour. Upstairs is my apartment, maybe we can get her a change 'o clothes or somethin'?" He suggested. If it were the Black Hoods, more importantly, he could probably wake up Takeshi to help dealing with it. According to Bedlam, he was a user anyway; and apparently so were all present, with how loosely it was mentioned... "I'm willin' t'take y'all there, if ya don't mind the atmosphere." |
![]() |
|
| The One True Nobody | Feb 19 2014, 07:38 PM Post #9 |
|
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
|
Nishiyo's first impulse had been to introduce herself by a pseudonym. She wasn't that remarkable-looking, after all, surely none of these dipshits would know her face. When it turned out one of them did know her face, her eyes snapped to Mia in blank surprise. What...? ...Fuck. Well. That was a curve ball. Then she had to hope none of these three were Persona-users and that they hadn't paid much attention to the Love Doctor thread. She never should have made that stupid post, she'd gone and let herself get drunk to blow off stress and just--agh! The prophecy she could work with, though. Maybe even use. Yes. She could use that... --Wait, the mention of Black Hoods! Was at least the girl a Persona-user? Nishiyo shook her head quickly, flecks of water flying out of her hair. "...Not Black Hoods. Someone... tailing me. And someone else tried to k-kill me. Dropped me in the river. I d-don't think they know I'm alive... there was a gunshot before I fell..." A gunshot right against her head, which was why she felt so rattled. Her skull hadn't taken any damage but the force of a point-blank gunshot to the head was still hazardous to the fragile organ underneath. It had been small, though, low-calibur... basic model. The kind of thing low-brow gun smugglers sold. Nishiyo should have expected someone in Matsumoto's line of work to carry one--that had been careless... "I-If they know I fell they might assume my body floated further downstream," Nishiyo suggested wildly. "If I can just get out of sight, they'll think I'm dead for good--" She faltered. This was risky. Very risky, but... "...And th-then I'll finally be free... o-of my family..." |
![]() |
|
| Exodin | Feb 20 2014, 11:27 AM Post #10 |
|
MAHHA
|
"Sadako?" The name was said with some sort of vague recognition. Hadn't it been a Nishiyo Sadako that was "prophesied" to be killed in like, four different ways? Not that he believed in any of that dumb shit. Still he couldn't remember if this was supposed to be one of them or not. He turned to look towards Mia, his face screwed into a questioning expression with an eyebrow raised. What would they need with her wet jacket? "What are you thinking Mia?" He glanced at Nishiyo again. If not the Hoods, then who? The boy then had a sort of bitter realization. This girl could probably have made enemies, just as easily as...no it was best not to think about any of that. He was trying to help someone for once. Jiro looked at the older man, why the hell of all placed did it have to be a bar? "A bar, huh? Well as long as we don't have to deal with too many drunks or fuckheads, then i'm game. As long as we got a place to hunker down for a while. Get some time to chill out and think about our next move." He wasn't about to pry into the last comment. His own family was broken as shit anyway. So going off of his own thoughts on what he would do if someone asked...it was definitely better to leave all of that alone. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · Nagashima Back Streets · Next Topic » |
| Track Topic · E-mail Topic |
1:26 PM Jul 11
|









1:26 PM Jul 11