[WEEK 2, FRIDAY POST-INVESTIGATION: Akira]

[spinatalltale]

[for Akira, it's probably no surprise that Magilou goes immediately for her book once the death announcement is made and the crowd disburses. she immediately makes her way towards the jungle, journal flipped open to a blank page as she chews on the end of her quill. it isn't until she happens to look up to make sure she isn't about to run into anything that she notices him]

[and she stops in her tracks]

. . .

[she isn't saying anything because she hasn't forgotten that judging look]

Comments

[jokered]

...Hey.

[that's it. just a hey. there's not really any judging expressions or anything like that now. he's more subdued now that they know who died—and who is going to die as a result.]

[spinatalltale]

[. . . sighs]

Fine, fine. I know how to take my lumps!

Let it out.

[jokered]

[...]

Don't do things so much that will make enemies of people. Certain buttons shouldn't be pushed right now.

[yeah, that's it.]

[spinatalltale]

[ugh]

[her mouth quirks up slightly. an irritated smirk]

If someone wants to kill me just because of my inability to feel despair, then I think that's their problem.

Not mine.

[the point]







[her head]

[jokered]

[his expression narrows a bit—he's not entirely surprised by her response, but...

it lights a bit of a fire, to be sure.]

I'm not telling to you feel anything, but don't throw your life away because you think you're being clever.

[why are you being a moron, magilou.]

It won't be their problem if they kill you. It'll be everyone else's.

[wow, it's almost like he cares or something.]

[spinatalltale]

[she's always a moron let her live]

[funnily enough, it's the last part-- it won't be their problem, it'll be everyone else's-- that wipes the irritated smirk from her expression. her eyes widen for a moment, before they return to their usual flat state]

Contrary to what some believe, I don't have a death wish.

[jokered]

Then don't go inviting it.

[he's not harsh; his tone is firm—but yet quiet.]

Don't put a target on your back over something stupid.

[spinatalltale]

[her grip tightens on the spine of her journal, the spark of irritation returning in the pit of her stomach. he's not the first person to say this to her-- don't go putting a target on your back, care more about your own life, don't act like you have a death wish, what's even wrong with you?-- but he's the first person who gets to see a glimpse of how much that digs at her]

My! You say that like I actually have any say on whether there's a target on my back in the first place.

[that's one bit of agency she doesn't have in this place. that's one bit of agency that only the killers-- those with the roles that facilitate murder-- are privy to]

[jokered]

Magilou.

[he sees it, of course. he sees the way it digs at her, and...

he keeps digging? he's not sure why. maybe because when it irritates her, he gets a sense of her genuine emotions. there's something there, hidden beneath her attitude and he can't help but want to pry it out from her somehow and get some honesty.

it's something, to be sure.]

You know what I mean. You can prevent giving people more of a reason. Don't... treat people's deaths so flippantly.

[he's thinking of her, but... he's thinking of neku too. even if neku kicked that body down the mountain—akira obviously doesn't know that.]

1/2

[spinatalltale]

[god. fucking]

[she's gripping her book tightly now, pressing it against her chest. what does he know, anyway? she's known from the very beginning that there would be very little she could do to prevent her own death should someone decide to kill her. she isn't physically strong, she doesn't have her artes, and she hasn't been afforded the protection of any weapons or roles that might shield her from such an attack. if that was the case. . . then what else is there for her to do than seize whatever agency she can? her journal-- the eulogies she had written for Yato and Haru, and would now write for Joshua-- her stupid sense of humor, her dramatics, the bare bones revival of her Menagerie. . .]

[that all meant so much more to her than anything else on this island]

[spinatalltale]

[and she had thought it'd mean that people would keep their distance from her, so that nothing else would eventually take its place]

[. . .]

[nothing else would, right?]

Hey.

[she sounds tired, but she's not looking away from him]

. . . what's it like to actually. . . care?

[jokered]

[there's something he definitely recognizes in her words and tone, one that...

well, he wouldn't say it stings. it's not personal. but yet—it still kind of hurts him. the fact that she asks him questions like this, as if always just a step on the outside of normality. always distances, and never too sure of what it is people are feeling, exactly.]

I don't know.

[akira, what?] That's not something I know how to explain. It's just something that exists to me.

[he frowns.

it's a terrible answer, and he knows it.]

Do you really think you don't at all? Even when you burned things in the jungle. Even know, when you're clutching your book and glaring daggers at me?

[...] That's a type of caring.

[spinatalltale]

[from her earliest memories, that's how she's always been-- on the outside, looking in, hands pressed against some kind of glass wall that she could never seem to breach. Velvet and the others may have punched some holes into that wall, but one can't just rebuild their shattered heart in a matter of days, weeks, or even months]

[especially when she still wasn't quite sure where to begin]

[her answer is brutally, and painfully honest]

I can't.

[ugh. gross. honesty]

Not like you. Not like Laphicet. Not like-- her.

[jokered]

[it's honest. it's honest in a biting, painful way that seems to cut right through his chest in an unexpected way.

he shifts a bit, shuffling a bit closer. he has questions, he has concerns—and there's that weird, innate feeling of wanting to help her that rises in his chest. he doesn't need the call of lavenza's voice to tell him that she's a hanged man who needs this.]

Let's go sit somewhere. [under a nearby tree, or on a boulder. that statement is quick and idle, but—]

I don't know who she is, or how she compares to you or even me.

[but...]

Will you tell me, though? Why you can't.

[it's a question that is muted, concerned—but earnest and sincere all the same. who is she really? beneath all of these veneers—who is magilou?]

[spinatalltale]

[gaaaaawd, she can't believe he's already here, when it's only been two weeks. what is up with that? her nose wrinkles, and the blankness in her expression is replaced by a sort of comical irritation]

Do I have to? Normal Magilou is soooo boring! Remember?

[she can really go from one extreme to the other]

[and, despite her complaints, she brushes past him to make her way into the jungle. maybe they can find a tree to sit under or go chill by the oasis or something]

If I do, you owe me.

[masks. personas]

[she hasn't forgotten]

[jokered]

I'm interested in her.

[oh.]

In return, I'll answer some of your questions, too.

[but he'll follow just a step behind her, hands in his pockets—wherever it is she goes, he's going to follow. he can imagine it's now something she wants other people to overhear, so it's fine.]

[spinatalltale]

[what the FUCK, Akira]

[there's a hitch in her step, but it's so subtle that one could easily miss it]

Don't be. She's dead.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

[turns out she's leading him all the way to the oasis, where the. . . floating bloody clothing was found. . . this place probably isn't nearly as relaxing as it was before it was tarnished by Laura's arm and bloody clothing and other body parts]

[jokered]

[of course, he notices.

but he doesn't say anything about it, only frowning a little as she leads him to the oasis. it's definitely not as relaxing as it was—but it's better than the jungle or most other places.

he'll take a seat somewhere comfortable and just...

well, wait, he's not the talkative one here, after all.]

1/2

[spinatalltale]

[she takes a seat next to the water, though she doesn't dip her toes inside because said water has been RUINED!!! she does lean back on her hands, rolling her head back again as she does so, her journal resting at her hip for the time being]

Well! Before we begin, let me get one thing straight first.

I am the fierce witch Magilou, villainous enchantress, right-hand woman to the great Lord of Calamity, whose very name causes Exorcists from the Abbey to quiver in their armor!

[. . . WHY IS SHE STILL LIKE THIS. . .]

[spinatalltale]

And nothing about who I was before changes that.

Got it?

[this is Important]

[jokered]

[that raises like, 800 more questions.

but one thing at a time.

for now?]

Got it.

[spinatalltale]

[good]

[he'll see why that distinction was important soon enough]

Magillanica Lou Mayvin.

1/2

[jokered]

[okay, first of all, that name is way easier to fucking remember and pronounce, why the fuck did he memorize all that other bullshit?]

[jokered]

[but more importantly:]

Mayvin.

[yeah.

okay, he can already see why she would make that distinction. he already doesn't blame her, given what he knows about melchior.]

[spinatalltale]

[because you're a FOOL, Akira. that's why]

[there's more to the distinction than that, obviously. but he'll probably get that from her too?? maybe. we'll see how this conversation goes]

Right on the money. Turns out the old geezer was Magillanica's-- [Master? father-figure? she goes with the easier one of the two] -- Master.

[also he'll note that she isn't using "I," there, just. Magillanica]

He took her in when the traveling circus she was a part of was killed in a carriage accident. A real tragedy, that one. She was the only survivor.

[she says that with a hum in her voice, wondering if he can pick up on the implication of her tone-- there's a reason she was]