Pew Pew

[justicesfool]

 [The thing about being somewhere new is that usually, you were supposed to be able to use it as a fresh start. This... is not that. This is a place full of faces he knows - his own face, and Akechi's - and especially with the way the Mona who'd seemed like he was from his other life had reacted to him... it's giving him flashbacks of his record being leaked in Shujin. He keeps almost saying the wrong thing to people, too, used to everyone already knowing.

It's a while after all of that, and he hasn't risked going anywhere near Leblanc. He's scouted around a few places, though, and now he's wound up here at the arcade, playing a vicious game of Gun About. What can he say? It's good for getting rid of all that stress, without risking anyone walking in on him slaughtering shadows in a non-Joker-like way.

That said, even this isn't quite... right. He's too focused, for one thing. A bit too accurate. Nowhere near showy enough, either.

Poke him anyway?]

Comments

[cognicat]

[You know what Mona really, really likes? Automatic doors. Absolutely one of the best inventions humans ever came up with.

So when he walks down Central Street, sidestepping the people with their fixed, blank faces, and watching the crows with a fixed stare of his own, and the door of that arcade Joker went to every week opens up beside him...

... he takes a peek inside. And huh, there's that other one. The one in Akechi's uniform. Using that game controller like he was born to it. Morgana's heard a story like that before.

He slips inside to watch. The door whirrs loudly shut behind him. So much for feline phantom stealth.]

[justicesfool]

[The doors have opened and closed a few times, but Mona's caught him at a good moment, and his last shot clears the round with a high score, letting him turn around, looking for someone familiar- part of him instinctively expects to see Shinya, or Akechi. Maybe even Ryuji.

Then he looks down and sees a familiar feline form, and-]

You can watch if you want. Just don't mess up my scores on purpose, got it?

[cognicat]

[Mona flicks his whiskers, coming carefully closer.] By the looks of things, your scores would be just fine even if I tried.

[He doesn't say this like it's a good thing.]

[justicesfool]

[That- actually makes him pause.]

You never care about that back home.

[And then a shrug. After all, the Morgana he knew knew him just well enough to know when and were was safe to poke and prod. And Akechi outright enables him.]

[cognicat]

Not your Mona. [He takes another step forward, unsheathed claws tapping quietly on the arcade's tile floor.]

Joker's good, I'll give him that. But he's not that good.

[justicesfool]

No, you're not. But if you're allowed to make comparisons, so am I.

[He presses the buttons for another go around. Not like he can't talk around it, and now he has an audience, he might well start playing up the showmanship. If he feels like it.]

I bet he isn't. [Game music starts. Ready, fire!] I'm still Joker, by the way.

[cognicat]

Is that right. [Colour him highly doubtful, not-Joker, in every shade and hue a cat can see.

He hops up onto the pedestal, where the gun rack is. He's not in the way, probably.]

I'm surprised you're so bored. Would've thought you had no end of things to investigate. [Like a detective.]

[justicesfool]

Did you expect me to have a different codename, or something?

[Akira- starts shooting more carefully while Morgana gets up there, compared to his usual rapid-fire pace. But he doesn't stop or tell him off or anything.]

I'm not bored. There's plenty I could be doing. And who's saying I haven't been?

[cognicat]

You're not doing it here. [His ears flick back again; his tail is hanging down behind the pedestal.]

If anything, I'd say it looks like you're hiding.

[justicesfool]

[He has- so many things he could say to that. He bites back on some of it.]

Why are you so interested in what I'm doing, anyway? [Pew, pew.] I feel like I could tell you anything you want, and you'd still suspect me of something.

[It's bad enough back home, looking for Mona only to find he's being watched - not in the same way, but close enough.]

[cognicat]

[He doesn't reply to that, just growls, low and deep under his breath. Akira has likely heard similar growls before.]

Someone needs to keep a close eye on you. There are children here. [Ah, trust.]

[justicesfool]

[And- miss.]

Do you really think I'd hurt kids? That I'd want to?

[He's had to, in the past, by proxy if nothing else. But he stopped feeling things after a while, and now he's really himself again? Absolutely not. It's a special kind of self-hatred.]

[cognicat]

[... and Mona's ears flick back again, as he considers not-Joker. He's pretty sure Akechi would have hurt kids. Pretty sure he did. But.]

I guess maybe not if there's nobody here to tell you to do it. [But here's the problem: you never know, with some people, what they'll decide is necessary.]

[justicesfool]

[He sighs. It takes more work to aim carefully, but his thoughts are distracting.]

Nope. I can do what I want.

[Though that admits there was someone pulling his strings. But if Morgana knows to call him on it, he knows that already. No use pretending.]

It's the same back home, too.

[cognicat]

[He tilts his head, thinking about that one with suspicious eyes.]

That sounds pretty good, unless someone asks what you want to do.

[justicesfool]

It's easy back home. I'm over at Leblanc more than I'm home.

[He'd mentioned he was helping out there before, after all. And that's whenever he's not helping out with Sae's cases and sorting through everything they need to get Akechi out of jail.]

Here? Everything's- weird.

[cognicat]

[Again, his ears flick.] Wait. You don't live at Leblanc? You didn't..?

[What a stupid question. Of course this guy "didn't". Look at him. Mona's front claws scrabble, annoyed.]

[justicesfool]

Akechi lives in Leblanc. I don't. Nice place. Uptown, if you care about that. You'd never guess who my parents were rubbing shoulders with for the past few years.

[It's maybe a little too easy for him to know what Morgana means. But it's useful, too.

"Few," though. He doesn't even think about it.]

[cognicat]

Uh, no, you know, I think I could make a guess. [Backing away? Him? Maybe just a little.]

So—your Akechi lives in Leblanc, and, and he's you? And you're him, you go to his school, you were on TV, you—

Were your parents really in Shido's conspiracy?! [Have a full-on yowl, Akira. Mona is so confused.]

[justicesfool]

[Listens, and - laughs. Just a breathy little "hah. It's not a happy one.]

Be nice if it was all a big misunderstanding, you know? But, nope. Ship and all. Do you know how charming he can be when he wants?

[The arcade game sounds don't quite match his darker mood when thinking about it.]

Adults like them disgust me.

[cognicat]

[... because of a sickening human being, that's all it is... it's simply an absurd grudge...

Mona blinks up at him, suddenly all wide, blue eyes again.] Sounds extremely personal.

[justicesfool]

Can't get more personal than parents.

[He knows the irony of that. All too well.]

Like them or hate them, we're stuck with them one way or another. [Pause. Fire.] Still most of a year until I can move out, too.

[cognicat]

[He starts to lick a paw, eyes still distant and steady on Akira.]

You should just leave. Stop what you're doing. Sleep at Leblanc. My guess is Akechi would have you.

[justicesfool]

He... would. He'd complain, but he'd get it.

[Talking about Akechi in more than just the abstract makes him relax a bit. Go softer. His shots are still finding targets easily enough, but he's less covered in spiky hard edges.]

It's just- we're still working on getting him out of jail. It'd just be me up there for a while. And besides- I don't want the fuss my parents would pull at their perfect son suddenly 'running away from home.'

[cognicat]

[... and that brings his own Joker right into the foreground. Only just home.]

Was that Sae Niijima? Akechi, I mean.