[ The desperate groaning and crying of the spirits and whatever else is hiding in the dark does put her slightly on edge, but not enough for panic to truly set in.
After some of the other rooms, she doesn't want to let her guard down just yet.
Although it might be a strange blessing that this time she has Akechi alongside her. He's strong and she thinks the two of them can barrel through anything without issue. ]
I thought this would be scarier... but I guess not. [ Poor Mako-chan would be clinging to someone's leg by now. ] We should still be careful though.
[ With that said, her axe materializes in her hands. ]
This world must mistake us for children. Let's make sure they regret it.
[ With her axe and his-
Well, he doesn't bother arming himself yet. The knife against his hip will work if a specter can be killed like those in Mementos.
For now, they have an expansive staircase ahead of them, rooms on either side. His Navigation skills are a bust. It's trial and error from here on out. ]
Let's start with the closest door and make our way around. If you have any objections with that, make them now.
[ If he wants to put his body first in the line of fire, she has no complaints. ♥
But she won't allow him to be injured or killed by anything in here either. They need to keep each other in one piece at least to get through this strange room.
There's a wail in the distance and it reminds her of the Shadows deep in the passages of Mementos. She wonders if a ghost can be gutted the same way they can be in- ]
Hm? Alright, let's go. Don't wander too far off either.
It slams shut behind them. The room is plain and non-descript. It looks like any old abandoned bedroom from the 90s. The light flickers above, the only window boarded up and through the streams of light Akechi squints to see -
A body cut up and torn, affixed to the wall like a human spider. It stares down at them.
[ She winces slightly when the door slams, loud and definitive; they're locked in here, aren't they?
And then there's that creature, fixing them both a hungry stare.
Haru brandishes her weapon and begins to stalk towards it with little hesitation. ]
What a nuisance.
[ This isn't going to be simple, is it? She sighs and picks up speed, the edge of the axe dragging along the ground before she swings it forward, a spring in her step to help her reach the creature.
It doesn't have much time to react, probably not having expected Haru to have engaged it. It attempts to scramble up the wall, but her axe strikes directly into its skull, black ooze trickling down its face as its jaw slackens and its body peels off the wall, collapsing to the floor. ]
Oh! That didn't require a lot of effort after all...
[ She shifts the axe's handle, double-checking if the creature is still alive, but it doesn't so much as twitch a leg. ]
Weaklings are perfect for the Phantom Thieves and Akechi isn't going to waste his energy on nobodies. Haru taking the mantle, listening to him, and attacking the beast makes it easier. That battle in a hotel room was worthwhile if it makes her yield.
There's something to vicious, senseless destruction done by the hands of another. It's as if she was only waiting for the opportunity to strike - he isn't disappointed by the outcome. Its head makes a sickeningly plop under his heel when he smashes what's left of its face with his foot. An under the breath laugh hides in the crushing noise. ]
Useless. If they're all this weak, we're in for a boring day.
[ But now? They're locked in here. The door shakes like something's trying to get in from the other side. ]
I assume we need to take another path out. Perhaps there's a hidden door - take a look on your side.
[ Haru glimpses the door, sees the knob rattling violently.
Her grip on her handle doesn't lessen as she extracts it from the rest of the corpse, a streak of black painting the floor.
Kind of like a shadow... but not as satisfactory. Oh, well. ]
There might be multiple doors to go through before we find the real exit. Some of the other rooms were like that.
[ She glances down the dark hall to her side, reaching for her device so she can use it as a light.
There's a moment where she comes to a still, glancing over at Akechi.
It's alright to leave him, right? He's no stranger to traversing dangerous places on his own. He was able to travel through Palaces without any of them way back. ]
Don't stray too far, Akechi-kun.
[ As she speaks, there's a whisper in her ear, only heard to her. She looks down the hall again, wonders what it could be and why it sounds familiar.
And off she goes, the large axe parked on her shoulder. ]
[ He isn't taking any orders from her - it's a role he only entertains when Akira is involved.
But she may mistake that for tolerance when he follows behind, dragging his foot against the carpet for only a second to get the decay and rot off his shoe.
Doors rattle, whispers get louder - he lets Loki ignite with a promise to let it burn down the place once they have a target.
And one target makes itself known as it screams in their face, the lights flicker, pictures distort on the walls into grotesque mockeries of what they were prior. A pumpkin rotting. A smiling family becoming corpses.
The creature pops up and vanishes when Akechi moves to summon Loki. The blue flames around his feet disappear. ]
[ It's not an unfamiliar attitude to deal with, not when they had already fought side by side in the laboratory and even in the depths of Mementos, seated awkwardly across from one another in the Monabus while he made snide remarks.
It rolls off her like it did that time; they have more important things to focus on. Her response to him is level, factual.
Akechi dispenses the creature with ease and Haru hops toward him, another pep in her step, axe swinging above his head— ]
You need to be punished as well.
[ The axe breezes past him and slices into a humanoid creature with deep red lips and a toothy grin that's crawling off the ceiling, its grimy and bloody hands outstretched. A guttural noise follows before its body hits the floor. ]
[ Ironic she states that before pulling a blade on him.
Akechi can't help to find this a better use of time anyway.
She moves, he doesn't hesitate to pull the blade from his side and-
It's disappointing when she goes above him and a battle ends before it begins. His heart beat, beat, beats anyway.
And he's rewarded with a storm of viscera coating his hair, his body. He shakes the corpse's blood from his hair. This is annoying without his Metaverse outfit. ]
Somewhere between pulling the last strands of viscera from his hair and stepping around residual glass from another window that shatters when they walk by-
He hears an axe hit the ground. Haru goes still. Akechi's more annoyed than bothered by the sudden stop. ]
Pick up your weapon and keep moving.
[ But he prepares all the same, knife clenched tight, Loki churning in his chest.
Something's off. ]
Don't tell you've been hit with Fear? How pathetic.
There's a problem with Okumura - that much is obvious. Akechi hears an endless amount of voices, sees an empty space and feels-
Eyes above him. A predator in the dark. He doesn't mind the shift in roles.
Leave it to a Phantom Thief to have their heart stolen. Whatever's taken over her mind, well-
It would be a mercy to end her here. The only reason he doesn't try to slaughter her on the spot is because of Akira. That man would be insufferable if another Okumura's blood stained his hands.
It's not off the table - not at all. Push come to shove, he'll kill her.
At 'Tell me something-'
Blue flames coat his legs, his forehead. Loki appears behind him with intent to attack, though Akechi doesn't opt to. Not yet. ]
I don't take orders from you or the puppet you've found. My suggestion is you move on.
The word rouses the other it inside. It's trying to claw its way out and it hurts, it hurts-
Better make it quick. This pair is boring. They don't scream or run like the others. They just kill.
The flames are a warning, but stirs excitement all the same while the figure shimmies along the ceiling again, placing itself directly above Akechi. ]
Before? You didn't s༙྇t༙྇o༙྇p༙྇?༙྇ So much blood, so much blood...
[ Whose heart is pounding in their chest? ]
Tell me... did you want to
d༙྇i༙྇e༙྇¿༙྇
then?
[ A knife pressed against flesh. A grip that slackens, for a fleeting yet curious moment. A test someone failed. ]
The c༙྇u༙྇r༙྇s༙྇e༙྇d༙྇ child wants death? So why not
die? Ehehe...!
[ The Oracle slips from a pocket and drops directly at Akechi's feet then. Looking up, Haru's form, clinging to the ceiling above in some bizarre and inhumanly impossible fashion stares back at him with wide and hungry eyes, her head swivelled all the way around, revealing pallid skin. ]
Will you join your m༙྇o༙྇t༙྇h༙྇e༙྇r༙྇¿༙྇
m༙྇o༙྇t༙྇h༙྇e༙྇r༙྇¿༙྇
M༙྇O༙྇T༙྇H༙྇E༙྇R༙྇?༙྇ in hell?
[ Echoes of a rope tightening float in from both ends of the hall, a vaguely feminine voice rasping. ]
cw: suicide, violent thoughts, murder, horror themes, violence, just dont read it
A nobody is speaking to him - spitting out vile words and leaving bullet shaped holes in his skull that fill with static.
How funny.
It's not her.
He wishes it was. It would give him a reason to shoot her, tear strands of hair from her skull and dig out her eyes so she can't see Akechi Goro. Slice at the inside of her mouth until she can't speak of Akechi /̸̡̧̧̯̼̞̜̻̰̤̺̠̤̼̯̚-̴̩̂̋͋̏̾̓̀̾͑̂̕-̶̗͕̘͈̬̼̜̲͕̥̿́̀̾̏͂̏̓̾̍͛͝ ever again.
He can hear her.
He can hear her.
He can hear her.
And another Okumura will die for it.
His laughter echoes over the woman's gasping breath until it sounds like she's drowning in her own son's glee.
It's fitting, frankly. It's not like he didn't kill her - it's nothing to shut down her memory. Easier still when he grip fistfuls of his own hair, Call of Chaos filling his mind, heart, body. Igniting wrath and anger and mindless pleasure in the broken chains of his own psyche.
That's fine. It's fine. He'll rip her apart and be fine. He'll tear her from the ceiling and smash her face into the ground until she's fine. Loki will burn his heart raw until it's fine.
You piece of shit!
[ He can't jump that high, but Riot Gun reaches the ceiling just fine. The blade in his hand ready to rip her to shreds when she falls. He won't stop using that attack until she, or the ceiling, collapses. ]
I'll make sure you have as painful a death as your puppet's father did! I can't wait to hear how much it hurts!
[ A hole is blown clear through a part of the ceiling, bits of brittle wood and dust providing some semblance of a cover in the dark as the creature scampers across it, trying to avoid the rapid-fire assault.
Haru's small body contorts and stretches each time the creature changes direction, leaping from one end to another. It feels a sharp gust past its face and freezes in its spot.
The flesh is warm on its face.
It reaches to touch the side of its face and when it pulls its hand back, sees blood; a small cut across Haru's cheek where it had narrowly dodged another violent blast.
It grins and manic, raucous laughter erupts. ]
E༙྇h༙྇e༙྇H༙྇e༙྇H༙྇E༙྇H༙྇e༙྇h༙྇e༙྇H༙྇E༙྇E༙྇!༙྇ It wants to die and It wants to live!
Such a fun, fun f༙྇a༙྇t༙྇e༙྇?༙྇ for cursed children!
[ Its breath suddenly stalls, like its gasping for air then.
Puppet.
Stop saying that word. Stop saying that word.
Its wheezing stops, but Riot Gun connects far too close this time and knocks it straight off the ceiling. The body hits the floor with a heavy thud, but it flips over quickly enough, bones loudly snapping as Haru's head returns to its rightful state.
Its eyes seem to gleam through the dark at Akechi. A monster that realizes it faces another monster.
How fun. ]
Death will t༙྇a༙྇s༙྇t༙྇e༙྇ good. Do you want to
taste it?
[ Before Akechi can say anything, it launches itself to the side of the wall in a spider-like fashion, barrelling toward him at full-force. ]
rolled a FOUR TWICE. tried to CHEAT and ROLLED IT TWICE!!!!!!!
[ It's a force unlike anything he's ever felt. Beyond a surprise attack in the depths of Mementos, the jingle of a reaper's corpse a siren's call instead of a warning. A body slamming him to the ground in a desolate backyard coated in more blood than dirt, A slam faint slam an echo and slam of his body hitting heavy, heavy steel in the faintest memories of a life unlived. One she seems to remember as truth. Using as truth. Exploiting as truth.
He's impressed. It's not her, but it's using her. It's not her, but it speaks in a tone that was once hers. It's not her and he thinks it would be better if it could be her shaking those vile lips loose.
She's fast. Faster than the Reaper, faster than a shadow, faster than a bullet cutting through bone. It knocks the air from his lungs and sends them both to the ground.
All he can do is cackle through that choked out air. He loops an arm around her neck to keep her writhing form still against him. Blood for blood, air for air. The sight of her makes him sick and he croaks out as much in that small space between them. 'You're disgusting. You're pathetic. You're worth less than the trash on the ground.'
And with the arm still at his side, he attempts to slam the blade into her neck. ]
cw: biting... not quite vore... maybe... (yet) stop reading
[ It would so, so easy if it could pick up the axe lying ten or so feet away. So easy to swing down a heavy and thick blade, let it tear into those awfully delicate human bodies, slicing through tendons and bone and watch as all the blood spills forth like a beautiful river of red.
This is much more fun. Body against body, grabbing, tearing, pulling - oh.
What a thrill, to feel this alive in so long.
It feels the thrashing of its innards; the other it kicking, pounding and screaming to be released. It wheezes again as Akechi draws its figure close. ]
Not yet... not Y༙྇E༙྇T༙྇?༙྇
[ It wants to feel how warm and soft this monster is in on the inside. Coat them both with red before they both gouge each other's hearts out.
The other one... ah, well.
The creature bangs its head against Akechi's, a disorienting moment, but it can't seem to break free to get a good look at him. It wants to see rabid glee in its eyes. It wants to soak it all in while it still can-
But it doesn't let go.
The demon giggles, Haru's girlish voice sounding heavy and distorted, like something is twisting her neck and trying to wring the air out of her lungs.
It can feel the heat from Akechi's ragged, manic breathing mingling with its own. It traces the source of it, down to upturned lips twisted into a frenzied grin. One hand reaches for the throat, the other tries to slow down the blade, gripping his wrist to keep the blade from further nicking the skin.
These bodies are so... so fragile.
So, so soft. ]
So ugly!
[ It pushes its mouth onto the other and a heartbeat later, its teeth sink into Akechi's bottom lip, breaking through tender flesh as blood pools back into both theirs mouths. ]
[ 'Haru' stops the assault with only her hands and he can't help to spare a passing thought about what Okumura was missing in his own palace. How little he knew of a forgotten little princess shoved into a pristine tower. A palace ruler that had utilized Haru like this beast is would have been able to decimate the thieves.
It's funny. This whole scenario. The knock against his skull is annoying - the touch after breathes life back into him. The vicious cruelty of battle the only way to make joy bloom in his heart.
And it blooms. Relentlessly.
It's a man hovering over him with tyrant skills. It's a boy standing in front of him with an endless supply of masks. It's a girl goaded into pressing a blade into his stomach. It's an irritation dragging him across a bed, sinking a knife near his heart.
It's a thief digging teeth into his lip and he can't help the elated laughter that coats his tongue. Blood fills his mouth, runs along his lip, stains his teeth. ]
Look in a mirror, idiot! I can't wait to crush you into dust. You're nothing more than trash!
[ Knife out of commission -
He thinks it's time for a tried and true method of dispatching a beast. She can stay affixed to his mouth - it'll be the noose that strangles her.
Loki appears above them and attacks with laevateinn - striking down on both relentlessly. ]
[ The creature relishes the mixed taste of salt and metal in its mouth and rakes in the satisfaction of the girl who's still clawing frantically on the side.
Teeth snag along the flesh in its mouth, about to pull back and rip the rest away when that horned demon appears in a flash of blue.
It's fine, it's fine, it's time to die-
These two mortals are only fun to play with when they're tearing at each other.
And if the monster below the possessed figure of Haru wants to shred both of their bodies in the process, then it's a welcome end. ]
Hhhk.
[ The assault is sharp, precise and painful. It snarls against the blows, it doesn't move to escape as the rampage above hails down on them, only sitting upright so it can see that deep-seated thirst for blood in Akechi's eyes, to gaze upon a monster who will join it in the miserable afterlife-
But now it can't see Akechi. Not clearly. Its vision blurs and there's a twinge of panic in its own eyes. ]
G༙྇e༙྇tout༙྇.
[ The head twitches to the side and form begins to convulse, Haru's hands at her neck now, fingers clawing at her collar before they're at her own flesh.
Laevateinn hurts, but it was enough to knock the wind out of whatever deranged spirit cohabits her body. The creature can feel its leash on the other loosening and-
No, no, no. They're ruining it.
Ruined. Ruined. Ruined.
The wheezing restarts and Haru's real voice can be heard in between, her breathing stronger and stronger with each beat. ]
Get out o༙྇u༙྇t༙྇ o༙྇f༙྇ m༙྇e༙྇-N༙྇O༙྇?༙྇
[ Haru can feel the strings.
Her fingers wrap around them and she pulls as hard as she can muster, her own body fighting against her as her bones snap in and out of place, trying to keep her inside a little longer, just until both of them drop dead.
But Okumura Haru stopped being a puppet a long time ago. She won't be this pathetic creature's play thing.
The strings rip and Haru's voice breaks through, from deep in her throat and ringing throughout the room. ]
Get out!
[ Her entire body lurches forward, her mouth opens and Haru begins to vomit with a force, but what ejects from her isn't her stomach contents, but hundreds of little, black spiders that are launched onto Akechi's face and begin to skitter away in a panicked state in various directions.
She coughs out the last several spiders, gasping for air like she's been held underwater far too long, because it certainly felt like it. ]
[ By the time he moves to rip her to pieces, she's tearing at her own skin with fervor.
His own hands join in to peel skin from bone because she won't take away his kill. For a second, he digs in to her flesh. Lets his knife stay at the edge of her throat.
It's fun to watch people fall apart. To watch them snap.
And she's snapping. It's the only reason he doesn't slam the blade into her skull when an opening comes from that internal battle.
But he stays, waits, watches her body lurch and-
He wishes it were vomit. What comes out is far worse - the prickling, grotesque sensation of warm bugs on his face, his hair, running, running running but on him. ]
It's about time. Were you enjoying your little vacation?
[ It's a small blessings the spiders move on their own, but he smashes the ones he can reach anyway. Their bodies stick to his legs, his arms - he wipes his face to knock some off and tries to push her off with his foot. ]
[ Haru chokes and splutters as the last of the spiders are expelled from her, her convulsing slowed down and her body returning to its normal state.
There's an instant relief to be back in the driver's seat, to see the world again from her own eyes and not a murky distance in which she couldn't stop her arms and legs from jerking in different directions.
A lot is going on. She can taste iron in her mouth, she had felt Akechi's nails against her skin and then she's thrown off him, falling onto her side and barely catching herself in the nick of time.
She continues to gasp for air, but once she feels herself on stable ground, she rolls onto her knees, hands pressed to the floor to lift herself slightly to get a view of what's happening.
Spiders running everywhere. She can hear them screaming in her ear, frightened, pathetic, weak little things.
The relief she feels is short-lived, replaced with an agitated longing to inflict the pain back tenfold. ]
Punish them, Milady.
[ A dash of blue flames encircles her and Milady rises from the dark, skirt unfolding and pieces peeling back as heavy artillery loads and points forward. Her Persona begins a rapid-fire assault of Triple Down, bullets raining down with a fury and tearing through the bodies of the arachnids with ease, but also ripping through the walls and ceiling of this infuriating place.
If they can't find an exit, they'll simply make one. ]
[ Irritation gives way to joy - an erratic, vile cackle rings through the destruction. It takes him only a second to push himself up after she flings herself off him.
There's copper on his lip. It stings. He wants more and-
It's not quite the massacre he wanted - an insect's guts aren't as satisfying as blood and ethereal smoke. He commands Loki to attack all the same. There can't be too many creatures getting past them, but even if they are-
They're going to rip apart this place - the ceiling, walls, siding is torn with her Triple Down and Riot Gun. He sidesteps beams and panels that collapse. It's not smart, it's not wise. A part of him recognizes this senseless destruction might cause more problems than it solves, but- ]
[ Pieces of wall and beams are completely torn away from rotting, thin wooden walls and a spot of moonlight illuminates the area, revealing the senseless destruction the two have enacted.
But there are no doors hidden behind panels or bookshelves that have been knocked over in the ensuing chaos, or anywhere.
It's just one big room, with thick dust and splinters flitting about the air and some of the already mangled bodies of the creatures they had taken out earlier, riddled with more holes now.
The spiders are mostly dead. Squashed under the force of their feral attacks, if not ripped into pieces through the sheer violence of Loki's attack.
Haru recalls Milady when no door appears, still on her knees, her hand pressed to her lips now. A hasty wipe with her finger reveals the deep red staining her face and neck and her figure comes to a still as she gazes hard at blood that doesn't belong to her.
The metallic taste floods her mouth again when her senses zero in on the warm, slick fluid coating the side of her mouth and her tongue.
She wants to gag, but after releasing all those spiders, she barely has the energy for a second go at it.
Haru wipes her mouth with her back of her hand and very slowly, heart hammering away in her chest and her stomach churning at the thought, swallows with an unpleasant expression seeping into her delicate features.
And maybe she does gag behind her hand, but it's quiet, barely audible as another piece of the ceiling collapses from the side, hitting the walls on the way down.
This is definitely the worst room she's been in thus far. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
After some of the other rooms, she doesn't want to let her guard down just yet.
Although it might be a strange blessing that this time she has Akechi alongside her. He's strong and she thinks the two of them can barrel through anything without issue. ]
I thought this would be scarier... but I guess not. [ Poor Mako-chan would be clinging to someone's leg by now. ] We should still be careful though.
[ With that said, her axe materializes in her hands. ]
no subject
[ With her axe and his-
Well, he doesn't bother arming himself yet. The knife against his hip will work if a specter can be killed like those in Mementos.
For now, they have an expansive staircase ahead of them, rooms on either side. His Navigation skills are a bust. It's trial and error from here on out. ]
Let's start with the closest door and make our way around. If you have any objections with that, make them now.
[ He'll just go off on his own if she does. ♥ ]
no subject
[ If he wants to put his body first in the line of fire, she has no complaints. ♥
But she won't allow him to be injured or killed by anything in here either. They need to keep each other in one piece at least to get through this strange room.
There's a wail in the distance and it reminds her of the Shadows deep in the passages of Mementos. She wonders if a ghost can be gutted the same way they can be in- ]
Hm? Alright, let's go. Don't wander too far off either.
cw: horror, spider-imagery ig
It slams shut behind them. The room is plain and non-descript. It looks like any old abandoned bedroom from the 90s. The light flickers above, the only window boarded up and through the streams of light Akechi squints to see -
A body cut up and torn, affixed to the wall like a human spider. It stares down at them.
Akechi stares back, unimpressed as ever.
To Haru: ]
Take care of the pest, will you?
cw: violence and blood... ish things
And then there's that creature, fixing them both a hungry stare.
Haru brandishes her weapon and begins to stalk towards it with little hesitation. ]
What a nuisance.
[ This isn't going to be simple, is it? She sighs and picks up speed, the edge of the axe dragging along the ground before she swings it forward, a spring in her step to help her reach the creature.
It doesn't have much time to react, probably not having expected Haru to have engaged it. It attempts to scramble up the wall, but her axe strikes directly into its skull, black ooze trickling down its face as its jaw slackens and its body peels off the wall, collapsing to the floor. ]
Oh! That didn't require a lot of effort after all...
[ She shifts the axe's handle, double-checking if the creature is still alive, but it doesn't so much as twitch a leg. ]
cw: VIOLENCE AGAINST ??? A CORPSE
Weaklings are perfect for the Phantom Thieves and Akechi isn't going to waste his energy on nobodies. Haru taking the mantle, listening to him, and attacking the beast makes it easier. That battle in a hotel room was worthwhile if it makes her yield.
There's something to vicious, senseless destruction done by the hands of another. It's as if she was only waiting for the opportunity to strike - he isn't disappointed by the outcome. Its head makes a sickeningly plop under his heel when he smashes what's left of its face with his foot. An under the breath laugh hides in the crushing noise. ]
Useless. If they're all this weak, we're in for a boring day.
[ But now? They're locked in here. The door shakes like something's trying to get in from the other side. ]
I assume we need to take another path out. Perhaps there's a hidden door - take a look on your side.
cw: continued wtf is wrong with these two
Her grip on her handle doesn't lessen as she extracts it from the rest of the corpse, a streak of black painting the floor.
Kind of like a shadow... but not as satisfactory. Oh, well. ]
There might be multiple doors to go through before we find the real exit. Some of the other rooms were like that.
[ She glances down the dark hall to her side, reaching for her device so she can use it as a light.
There's a moment where she comes to a still, glancing over at Akechi.
It's alright to leave him, right? He's no stranger to traversing dangerous places on his own. He was able to travel through Palaces without any of them way back. ]
Don't stray too far, Akechi-kun.
[ As she speaks, there's a whisper in her ear, only heard to her. She looks down the hall again, wonders what it could be and why it sounds familiar.
And off she goes, the large axe parked on her shoulder. ]
SHUTS MY EYES
[ He isn't taking any orders from her - it's a role he only entertains when Akira is involved.
But she may mistake that for tolerance when he follows behind, dragging his foot against the carpet for only a second to get the decay and rot off his shoe.
Doors rattle, whispers get louder - he lets Loki ignite with a promise to let it burn down the place once they have a target.
And one target makes itself known as it screams in their face, the lights flicker, pictures distort on the walls into grotesque mockeries of what they were prior. A pumpkin rotting. A smiling family becoming corpses.
The creature pops up and vanishes when Akechi moves to summon Loki. The blue flames around his feet disappear. ]
I'm getting annoyed.
no? open them also cw: more murder
[ It's not an unfamiliar attitude to deal with, not when they had already fought side by side in the laboratory and even in the depths of Mementos, seated awkwardly across from one another in the Monabus while he made snide remarks.
It rolls off her like it did that time; they have more important things to focus on. Her response to him is level, factual.
Akechi dispenses the creature with ease and Haru hops toward him, another pep in her step, axe swinging above his head— ]
You need to be punished as well.
[ The axe breezes past him and slices into a humanoid creature with deep red lips and a toothy grin that's crawling off the ceiling, its grimy and bloody hands outstretched. A guttural noise follows before its body hits the floor. ]
no subject
Akechi can't help to find this a better use of time anyway.
She moves, he doesn't hesitate to pull the blade from his side and-
It's disappointing when she goes above him and a battle ends before it begins. His heart beat, beat, beats anyway.
And he's rewarded with a storm of viscera coating his hair, his body. He shakes the corpse's blood from his hair. This is annoying without his Metaverse outfit. ]
Nice trick.
no subject
Haru always finds it oddly fascinating, a delightful chill up her spine when she examines it closely.
Kind of like a Shadow, but also not. ]
I wonder what these creatures are?
[ She leans back as Akechi shakes off the blood to avoid the splatter, propping her weapon on her shoulder again.
That curious chilly feeling returns. It makes its way up her spine again, reaching the back of her neck and she shudders suddenly.
It's ice cold. ]
Well, anyway... [ It must be the room. Weird. ] Let's keep at it, shall we?
[ She doesn't wait for him, moving further into the murky hall, her form fading into the shadows as the light on her phone flickers.
And then that voice is in her ear again. It would be alarming, if it were not a meld of everyone she's ever known.
Come here.
The dim light is swallowed up and in a blink, Haru is gone. Her axe clattering on the ground. ]
no subject
Somewhere between pulling the last strands of viscera from his hair and stepping around residual glass from another window that shatters when they walk by-
He hears an axe hit the ground. Haru goes still. Akechi's more annoyed than bothered by the sudden stop. ]
Pick up your weapon and keep moving.
[ But he prepares all the same, knife clenched tight, Loki churning in his chest.
Something's off. ]
Don't tell you've been hit with Fear? How pathetic.
no subject
And it's quiet.
Something soundlessly moves above on the ceiling, head tilted to stare at the young man below.
Fear?
No, no, no- this thing below doesn't know fear. Not so much as an eyelash batted at grotesque monsters and loud thumps and crashes in the dark. ]
... you don't? F༙྇e༙྇a༙྇r༙྇¿༙྇
[ Haru's voice comes from nowhere and everywhere at once.
Right, right right, right-
It doesn't fear. It likes.
Buried in a memory, two bloodstained figures and a knife.
Right, right right, right-
It likes the taste. ]
Hey,
h༙྇e༙྇y༙྇.༙྇
Tell m༙྇e༙྇¿༙྇ something?
no subject
There's a problem with Okumura - that much is obvious. Akechi hears an endless amount of voices, sees an empty space and feels-
Eyes above him. A predator in the dark. He doesn't mind the shift in roles.
Leave it to a Phantom Thief to have their heart stolen. Whatever's taken over her mind, well-
It would be a mercy to end her here. The only reason he doesn't try to slaughter her on the spot is because of Akira. That man would be insufferable if another Okumura's blood stained his hands.
It's not off the table - not at all. Push come to shove, he'll kill her.
At 'Tell me something-'
Blue flames coat his legs, his forehead. Loki appears behind him with intent to attack, though Akechi doesn't opt to. Not yet. ]
I don't take orders from you or the puppet you've found. My suggestion is you move on.
cw: suicide/description of suicide
The word rouses the other it inside. It's trying to claw its way out and it hurts, it hurts-
Better make it quick. This pair is boring. They don't scream or run like the others. They just kill.
The flames are a warning, but stirs excitement all the same while the figure shimmies along the ceiling again, placing itself directly above Akechi. ]
Before? You didn't s༙྇t༙྇o༙྇p༙྇?༙྇ So much blood, so much blood...
[ Whose heart is pounding in their chest? ]
Tell me... did you want to
then?
[ A knife pressed against flesh. A grip that slackens, for a fleeting yet curious moment. A test someone failed. ]
The c༙྇u༙྇r༙྇s༙྇e༙྇d༙྇ child wants death? So why not
die? Ehehe...!
[ The Oracle slips from a pocket and drops directly at Akechi's feet then. Looking up, Haru's form, clinging to the ceiling above in some bizarre and inhumanly impossible fashion stares back at him with wide and hungry eyes, her head swivelled all the way around, revealing pallid skin. ]
Will you join your m༙྇o༙྇t༙྇h༙྇e༙྇r༙྇¿༙྇
m༙྇o༙྇t༙྇h༙྇e༙྇r༙྇¿༙྇
[ Echoes of a rope tightening float in from both ends of the hall, a vaguely feminine voice rasping. ]
cw: suicide, violent thoughts, murder, horror themes, violence, just dont read it
A nobody is speaking to him - spitting out vile words and leaving bullet shaped holes in his skull that fill with static.
How funny.
He wishes it was. It would give him a reason to shoot her, tear strands of hair from her skull and dig out her eyes so she can't see Akechi Goro. Slice at the inside of her mouth until she can't speak of Akechi /̸̡̧̧̯̼̞̜̻̰̤̺̠̤̼̯̚-̴̩̂̋͋̏̾̓̀̾͑̂̕-̶̗͕̘͈̬̼̜̲͕̥̿́̀̾̏͂̏̓̾̍͛͝ ever again.
He can hear her.
He can hear her.
And another Okumura will die for it.His laughter echoes over the woman's gasping breath until it sounds like she's drowning in her own son's glee.
It's fitting, frankly. It's not like he didn't kill her - it's nothing to shut down her memory. Easier still when he grip fistfuls of his own hair, Call of Chaos filling his mind, heart, body. Igniting wrath and anger and mindless pleasure in the broken chains of his own psyche.
That's fine. It's fine. He'll rip her apart and be fine. He'll tear her from the ceiling and smash her face into the ground until she's fine. Loki will burn his heart raw until it's fine.
You piece of shit!
[ He can't jump that high, but Riot Gun reaches the ceiling just fine. The blade in his hand ready to rip her to shreds when she falls. He won't stop using that attack until she, or the ceiling, collapses. ]
I'll make sure you have as painful a death as your puppet's father did! I can't wait to hear how much it hurts!
cw: continued, everyone stop reading.
Haru's small body contorts and stretches each time the creature changes direction, leaping from one end to another. It feels a sharp gust past its face and freezes in its spot.
The flesh is warm on its face.
It reaches to touch the side of its face and when it pulls its hand back, sees blood; a small cut across Haru's cheek where it had narrowly dodged another violent blast.
It grins and manic, raucous laughter erupts. ]
E༙྇h༙྇e༙྇H༙྇e༙྇H༙྇E༙྇H༙྇e༙྇h༙྇e༙྇H༙྇E༙྇E༙྇!༙྇ It wants to die and It wants to live!
Such a fun, fun f༙྇a༙྇t༙྇e༙྇?༙྇ for cursed children!
[ Its breath suddenly stalls, like its gasping for air then.
Puppet.
Stop saying that word. Stop saying that word.
Its wheezing stops, but Riot Gun connects far too close this time and knocks it straight off the ceiling. The body hits the floor with a heavy thud, but it flips over quickly enough, bones loudly snapping as Haru's head returns to its rightful state.
Its eyes seem to gleam through the dark at Akechi. A monster that realizes it faces another monster.
How fun. ]
Death will t༙྇a༙྇s༙྇t༙྇e༙྇ good. Do you want to
taste it?
[ Before Akechi can say anything, it launches itself to the side of the wall in a spider-like fashion, barrelling toward him at full-force. ]
rolled a FOUR TWICE. tried to CHEAT and ROLLED IT TWICE!!!!!!!
He's impressed. It's not her, but it's using her. It's not her, but it speaks in a tone that was once hers. It's not her and he thinks it would be better if it could be her shaking those vile lips loose.
She's fast. Faster than the Reaper, faster than a shadow, faster than a bullet cutting through bone. It knocks the air from his lungs and sends them both to the ground.
All he can do is cackle through that choked out air. He loops an arm around her neck to keep her writhing form still against him. Blood for blood, air for air. The sight of her makes him sick and he croaks out as much in that small space between them. 'You're disgusting. You're pathetic. You're worth less than the trash on the ground.'
And with the arm still at his side, he attempts to slam the blade into her neck. ]
cw: biting... not quite vore... maybe... (yet) stop reading
This is much more fun. Body against body, grabbing, tearing, pulling - oh.
What a thrill, to feel this alive in so long.
It feels the thrashing of its innards; the other it kicking, pounding and screaming to be released. It wheezes again as Akechi draws its figure close. ]
Not yet... not Y༙྇E༙྇T༙྇?༙྇
[ It wants to feel how warm and soft this monster is in on the inside. Coat them both with red before they both gouge each other's hearts out.
The other one... ah, well.
The creature bangs its head against Akechi's, a disorienting moment, but it can't seem to break free to get a good look at him. It wants to see rabid glee in its eyes. It wants to soak it all in while it still can-
But it doesn't let go.
The demon giggles, Haru's girlish voice sounding heavy and distorted, like something is twisting her neck and trying to wring the air out of her lungs.
It can feel the heat from Akechi's ragged, manic breathing mingling with its own. It traces the source of it, down to upturned lips twisted into a frenzied grin. One hand reaches for the throat, the other tries to slow down the blade, gripping his wrist to keep the blade from further nicking the skin.
These bodies are so... so fragile.
So, so soft. ]
So ugly!
[ It pushes its mouth onto the other and a heartbeat later, its teeth sink into Akechi's bottom lip, breaking through tender flesh as blood pools back into both theirs mouths. ]
cw: VORE-ESQUE, VIOLENT THOUGHTS, VIOLENCE
It's funny. This whole scenario. The knock against his skull is annoying - the touch after breathes life back into him. The vicious cruelty of battle the only way to make joy bloom in his heart.
And it blooms. Relentlessly.
It's a man hovering over him with tyrant skills. It's a boy standing in front of him with an endless supply of masks. It's a girl goaded into pressing a blade into his stomach. It's an irritation dragging him across a bed, sinking a knife near his heart.
It's a thief digging teeth into his lip and he can't help the elated laughter that coats his tongue. Blood fills his mouth, runs along his lip, stains his teeth. ]
Look in a mirror, idiot! I can't wait to crush you into dust. You're nothing more than trash!
[ Knife out of commission -
He thinks it's time for a tried and true method of dispatching a beast. She can stay affixed to his mouth - it'll be the noose that strangles her.
Loki appears above them and attacks with laevateinn - striking down on both relentlessly. ]
cw: vore-esque, emetophobia + spiders
Teeth snag along the flesh in its mouth, about to pull back and rip the rest away when that horned demon appears in a flash of blue.
It's fine, it's fine, it's time to die-
These two mortals are only fun to play with when they're tearing at each other.
And if the monster below the possessed figure of Haru wants to shred both of their bodies in the process, then it's a welcome end. ]
Hhhk.
[ The assault is sharp, precise and painful. It snarls against the blows, it doesn't move to escape as the rampage above hails down on them, only sitting upright so it can see that deep-seated thirst for blood in Akechi's eyes, to gaze upon a monster who will join it in the miserable afterlife-
But now it can't see Akechi. Not clearly. Its vision blurs and there's a twinge of panic in its own eyes. ]
G༙྇e༙྇t out༙྇.
[ The head twitches to the side and form begins to convulse, Haru's hands at her neck now, fingers clawing at her collar before they're at her own flesh.
Laevateinn hurts, but it was enough to knock the wind out of whatever deranged spirit cohabits her body. The creature can feel its leash on the other loosening and-
No, no, no. They're ruining it.
Ruined. Ruined. Ruined.
The wheezing restarts and Haru's real voice can be heard in between, her breathing stronger and stronger with each beat. ]
Get out o༙྇u༙྇t༙྇ o༙྇f༙྇ m༙྇e༙྇-N༙྇O༙྇?༙྇
[ Haru can feel the strings.
Her fingers wrap around them and she pulls as hard as she can muster, her own body fighting against her as her bones snap in and out of place, trying to keep her inside a little longer, just until both of them drop dead.
But Okumura Haru stopped being a puppet a long time ago. She won't be this pathetic creature's play thing.
The strings rip and Haru's voice breaks through, from deep in her throat and ringing throughout the room. ]
Get out!
[ Her entire body lurches forward, her mouth opens and Haru begins to vomit with a force, but what ejects from her isn't her stomach contents, but hundreds of little, black spiders that are launched onto Akechi's face and begin to skitter away in a panicked state in various directions.
She coughs out the last several spiders, gasping for air like she's been held underwater far too long, because it certainly felt like it. ]
cw: ALL ABOVE SPIDERS, EMETO, NIGHTMARES
His own hands join in to peel skin from bone because she won't take away his kill. For a second, he digs in to her flesh. Lets his knife stay at the edge of her throat.
It's fun to watch people fall apart. To watch them snap.
And she's snapping. It's the only reason he doesn't slam the blade into her skull when an opening comes from that internal battle.
But he stays, waits, watches her body lurch and-
He wishes it were vomit. What comes out is far worse - the prickling, grotesque sensation of warm bugs on his face, his hair, running, running running but on him. ]
It's about time. Were you enjoying your little vacation?
[ It's a small blessings the spiders move on their own, but he smashes the ones he can reach anyway. Their bodies stick to his legs, his arms - he wipes his face to knock some off and tries to push her off with his foot. ]
cw: spiders and spider death...
There's an instant relief to be back in the driver's seat, to see the world again from her own eyes and not a murky distance in which she couldn't stop her arms and legs from jerking in different directions.
A lot is going on. She can taste iron in her mouth, she had felt Akechi's nails against her skin and then she's thrown off him, falling onto her side and barely catching herself in the nick of time.
She continues to gasp for air, but once she feels herself on stable ground, she rolls onto her knees, hands pressed to the floor to lift herself slightly to get a view of what's happening.
Spiders running everywhere. She can hear them screaming in her ear, frightened, pathetic, weak little things.
The relief she feels is short-lived, replaced with an agitated longing to inflict the pain back tenfold. ]
Punish them, Milady.
[ A dash of blue flames encircles her and Milady rises from the dark, skirt unfolding and pieces peeling back as heavy artillery loads and points forward. Her Persona begins a rapid-fire assault of Triple Down, bullets raining down with a fury and tearing through the bodies of the arachnids with ease, but also ripping through the walls and ceiling of this infuriating place.
If they can't find an exit, they'll simply make one. ]
no subject
[ Irritation gives way to joy - an erratic, vile cackle rings through the destruction. It takes him only a second to push himself up after she flings herself off him.
There's copper on his lip. It stings. He wants more and-
It's not quite the massacre he wanted - an insect's guts aren't as satisfying as blood and ethereal smoke. He commands Loki to attack all the same. There can't be too many creatures getting past them, but even if they are-
They're going to rip apart this place - the ceiling, walls, siding is torn with her Triple Down and Riot Gun. He sidesteps beams and panels that collapse. It's not smart, it's not wise. A part of him recognizes this senseless destruction might cause more problems than it solves, but- ]
I'll annihilate you pieces of SHIT!
[ Well, he's having fun. ♥
Bye bye windows!! ]
cw: emeto + blood AND WRAPPED 💝
But there are no doors hidden behind panels or bookshelves that have been knocked over in the ensuing chaos, or anywhere.
It's just one big room, with thick dust and splinters flitting about the air and some of the already mangled bodies of the creatures they had taken out earlier, riddled with more holes now.
The spiders are mostly dead. Squashed under the force of their feral attacks, if not ripped into pieces through the sheer violence of Loki's attack.
Haru recalls Milady when no door appears, still on her knees, her hand pressed to her lips now. A hasty wipe with her finger reveals the deep red staining her face and neck and her figure comes to a still as she gazes hard at blood that doesn't belong to her.
The metallic taste floods her mouth again when her senses zero in on the warm, slick fluid coating the side of her mouth and her tongue.
She wants to gag, but after releasing all those spiders, she barely has the energy for a second go at it.
Haru wipes her mouth with her back of her hand and very slowly, heart hammering away in her chest and her stomach churning at the thought, swallows with an unpleasant expression seeping into her delicate features.
And maybe she does gag behind her hand, but it's quiet, barely audible as another piece of the ceiling collapses from the side, hitting the walls on the way down.
This is definitely the worst room she's been in thus far. ]