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personavelvetroomdr2024-09-04 09:21 pm
Friend or Foe
Location: Kichijoji Square
Interaction: +P4Sumi (engaged)
He finds himself sitting on the top of a pole situated at the very entrance of Kichijoji entrance- watching the crowd ignorantly walk around the premise with some children giggling and pointing up at a grown ass man housing himself at the top of some signal pole like a lost haunted sole. What they don't seem to pay attention to are the tentacles wrapped around the body of the metallic hub, making themselves comfortable as they burrow around Maruki's legs to make sure he's comfortable from the height- making it look like he was in a pod floating in air.
His own feelings however were no less peaceful.
Is it really true that the only thing he did was confront his senior teachers to accept his cognitive research before working with this entity who works like one of his own limbs...this felt immoral somehow.
He supposes that its better that he has this sort of power for now.
We can begin our research again. Doctor. The cure to humanity's true happiness is but a long arduous task.
"Where would you suggest to start?"
A tentacle loosens around the body of the pole and pulls up and pinches its spidery appendage together to point at a certain spot overlooking the general scenic view of Kichijoji's shops and Odaiba as a whole.
Kichijoji was a special place for Akira, wasn't it?
There is a lot of information in his mind but a lot of it doesn't have a source linked to it. Like bubbles popping and coming with no pattern- that's how his memory served him. It made things so much more difficult and now- with the ruckus everywhere; none of this was voing to turn out easy.
A research lab...
Suddenly a voice calls out to him from below as he looks below his pod- only to be shaken by the height. "Woah-!" He siddles back, watching as Yoshizawa-san calls out to him. He doesn’t recognize this one though so its best that he's a little careful.
"Erm...can you put me down, please?"
You don't have to ask twice.
Well all of this is still so new to him. "I'll be with you in just a second, Yoshizawa-san!" He yells down through his pod before nodding at it. Its then he realizes he's still in this strange clinical all white attire. He huffs as he closes his eyes and snaps his fingers.
His clothes manifest again and unlike the unstable transformation from earlier- they change back to his usual therapist clothes from earlier. Much better. He should look more friendly towards the likes of Yoshizawa-san.
Right. Yoshizawa. Not Kasumi.
The tentacles break and slowly wrap around Maruki's legs(while keeping a feet distance between his actual body) as it lowers down before the young woman like a gift. Well, Maruki was still a bit confused as usual but hey- it was not the worst thing ever. It actually came quite handy.
"I learned some interesting info from your friends over there, don't worry," he points his now bare finger towards the south-east. "At the Shibuya Square I mean. I am now 25% sure that we are still dead and going through delirium at its finest but considering how you kids adapted to the situation so easily...perhaps I am overreacting at this point."
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He doesn't know he's saying it. He can't feel his mouth moving; the only thing he can hear at all is a rushing sound in his ears. He stumbles away from the food stall, nearly tripping on a stool at the counter and then again as he crashes into a cognition, before he hits the wall behind him. The world has narrowed to the sight of his face, earnest and friendly, just the same as it was when they sat in his office, and later, that night in Leblanc. Why the hell did Ren think he'd found a place where he could escape? He should have known, he should have known. Maruki is everywhere. He's in the air, he's in Ren's mind. There's no escaping him ever again.
His legs give out. He crumples to the ground and scuttles back like a clumsy crab. His mouth still shapes the word no over and over, but his breathing is too fast and shallow for him to speak—which is also the reason he collapsed, though his panic has taken him so strongly that he doesn't realize it.
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Things just clicked for him a second too late. For a moment he was overjoyed to meet the one person he very well recognizes and is perhaps the closest confidant he could ever make ever since everything. The mistake that he immediately made was that with the clash of different worlds- this meant that there could be a possibility of him being someone else entirely.
"Woah woah, relax! Its just me!"
Maruki's eyes widen as he watches the Akira he once knew rushing away from him like paper curling away from the fire- leaving ash in its wake as the doctor can only stumble forward and pause as the cognition grumbles before Maruki pushes past them entirely, almost too harshly before he looks down at how Kurusu crumples to the ground. "Kurusu-kun...why are you-"
And later, his Ren got into some trouble, but he couldn't follow him to Mementos to keep him safe...
How did he even make that connection in the first place?
...
"Ren," he shakes his head as he gets down on one knee while his brows knit together in worry. "Please listen to me- I am not here to hurt you. I promise I have absolutely no relation to anything from your world-" he slowly reaches out a hand, keeping his pace slow just in case Ren doesn't want any physical contact. No, he can't overwhelm Ren like this. "Do you need anything at all? We can go to a corner of the park if that makes you comfortable-"
Calm down, Ren.
Maruki doesn't even realize as a tentacle slowly wraps around the very arm he offers to Ren- the centre of its spidery appendage glowing as his mind suddenly feels like its been pulled. He shakes his head in tandem as the neon bluish green continues to glow- aimed directly at the poor boy.
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He screams it loudly enough for everyone in a three-block radius to hear, loudly enough that he can hear it and not just feel it in the rasping of his throat. The attempt to calm him slips off the surface of his mind, unsuccessful; he's not aware enough to even notice it, which is probably for the best.
With one hand, he scrabbles for something behind his back, drawing out something that looks like a gun. But instead of pointing it at Maruki, he presses it to his own temple. His wide, panicked eyes remain fixed on Maruki's face.
"Raoul!"
Raoul manifests above him, winged and lanky, forbidding in a way he wasn't just months ago. He gestures, and a riot gun crashes in from the sky, aimed at Maruki—specifically, at Maruki's outstretched arm, the most immediate danger.
Ren is almost beyond the ability to think. Sheer, instinctive animal panic fills his mind, screaming in his ears.
TW: injury
Ren’s scream nearly pierce Maruki's ear-drums as his hand falters but in his mind he knows he should atleast try to comfort him in some way. What can he do? Azathoth is acting frenzy again as well- nestling on his arm for some reason.
He shouldn’t be alone with this.
The thought itself doesn't age well as he suddenly flinches when Akira moves. There is a startle and then his eyes widen in shock as he sees- a gun??? A fucking gun?? "-!" As if that itself isn't enough, the stare from those eyes makes him stumble back. Why is he acting like this?? What is he doing to him?
His questions don't recieve an answer as a flash of firey eyes manifests before him. The last thing he recognizes is the flourish of royal red wings wrapped in gold before the skies rain down on him in anger.
CRASH!!!
Pain.
It starts as a prick in his palm before it suddenly pushes through the right half of his body. He cries out in bone-shattering agony as he rolls back from the force of the persona before his head is cushioned by something.
Azathoth is at his rescue with green tentacles suddenly curl in on themselves and criss-cross into themselves to form into a pillow.
You must know that your actions have consequence, doctor.
"AGH-!!!" he screams as he grasps onto his right shoulder as red bleeds into his white coat. "You-!" He raises his head to glare up at him, a tear welling up at the corner of his eyes. "HOW COULD YOU-!? It...hurts-!"
There's a proper tear through his classic white coat- showing off his arm drenched in his own blood. Bile threatens to climb through his throat as he attends to his broken right hand with his left- charred black.
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Ren's breathing stutters as he watches Maruki fall back, screaming; as Raoul's attack all but destroys his arm. Maruki screams in pain and betrayal, and the whole thing is so unlike the god he's become at home that for a moment Ren doesn't recognize him.
It helps. Seeing Maruki like this, as just a human being instead of a usurper deity. Adrenaline and panic still pulse through Ren's body, overwhelming most of his ability to think, but some of the haze clears from his eyes.
"Don't fucking touch me," he says again. His voice shakes, but at least it's quieter this time. He grips his Evoker so tightly his fingers hurt.
He has a healing Persona, of course, but he doesn't even think about calling Maria. Maruki feels less dangerous like this.
1/2
All he wanted was some peace and quiet.
He suddenly wakes up to a world no longer his own, filled with people who don't matter and then he comes across the plethora of individuals who were already a big part of his life or had crossed paths with him at some point. Now he's stuck here with an entity he just awakened to, unstable and confused and now-
His hand-!
"Aghh fnnnnhhh-" he curls in on himself as he clutches tight to his arm- still sprawled on the ground as his destroyed arm shakes- charred black with red scars running across his arm. He's shaking in the pool of his own blood now dripping from his hand to his clean beige pants. All of this is too overwhelming, too fast and then he hears his voice again.
Through the pain is the flinching betrayal in his brown eyes. Gritting his teeth, he looks past his pain to glance at the gun in his hand. "How dare you- ugh!" His voice breaks as Azathoth's dark tentacles threateningly revolve around his curled up body. Raising his chin once more, he brings all of his energy together to scream at the once panicking boy. "You...You are the one with the gun in your hand. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"
"YOU BLEW UP MY HAND!"
Help me.
Someone help me.
My powers will break your being if I attempt to heal you in this premature stage.
"Do something- Azathoth!" He cries out.
Re: 2/2 (TW: lowkey body horror)
Maruki looks down at his hands. He looks at the watch wrapped around his left wrist.
"Oh, I can bet you will NOT be able to guess what I am getting for you~"
"Rumi you...you got this for me? Really?"
"Weren't you the one who said you can't keep up with time during work? I don't want you to be late with your thesis research because you stayed up the entire morning making breakfast for me again so-! I got a matching one as well-!"
There is a way around this. It will be momentarily painful.
"Do it!"
And the rest is history.
A dark tentacle flies up in the air, lightly jostling about before its spidery appendages pinch together- aimed directly at the man before Maruki is howling out loud. The tentacle dives down into his arm- growing shorter as its appendage pierces his skin and it slithers further into his body. "FUCK-!" He yells as the tentacle now only a feet along now slithers right under his skin, its path bulging as he brings his other hand to stifle his screams.
The air around him melts again- now shifting back to his all-white attire. A tentacle shoots up as its appendages threateningly size Ren up as if threatening him to not make another single move at Maruki.
Maruki gasps as his usually white gloved hand is bare this time.
His skin is normal.
For the most part.
Maruki forces himself to stand up but his back hunches as he does- now exhausted with a tear slipping through his right eye as he brings the same palm up to his mouth- as if containing the bile threatening to break through.
There are green smudges lined across his hand. Like rotten cheese. Like thickets of moss on bright coloured rocks with black flecks spread across all the injured parts of his body.
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"Leave me alone," he gasps between too-quick breaths. "Leave—leave me and—"
Alarm flares in Raoul. He urges caution, just as Ren himself thinks, Don't mention Akechi to him, you idiot. What the hell are you thinking? He chokes on the rest of his words, just in time. It does leave the end of that half-sentence dangling conspicuously; maybe if he was in a better state of mind, he would notice.
"Leave me alone," he repeats, stumbling over the words. "Leave me alone. Don't touch me. Leave me alone."
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He couldn't believe his luck right now. The moment his hand touches his face, it feels foreign to touch. Like he was touching a fragile replica of his hand which would break at the slightest mistake. He decides to completely lower it, not attending to it at the moment as it rests on the side before he turns to properly glare at the bespectacled boy. His lips turn down as he regards him.
"...tch. You are acting like you have the destroyed arm between us," he speaks through gritted teeth- anger welling in his eyes as his jaw tightens. Some people watch them from afar, acting like they are witnessing a spectacle. Really, Maruki would love to leave right now but he can’t risk getting injured again. Not when Ren is acting so unstable.
"So you are one of the few people I was warned about." His mind goes back to Kasumi before he's once again on guard at the sight of the firey monster pulsing around Ren. Is that...his persona? The pit in his stomach grows as he anticipates another attack tho his own legs shake a little at the thought of going through all of that again.
"I am really sorry that I can't help you right now but I NEED you to get rid of your gun and your persona! I don’t trust you with your unstable mental state!"
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"And then what?" he manages. "You try to grab me again? You, you get in my head? You make me—"
He cuts himself off with a shuddering gasp.
TW: body horror
His whole body feels like it could disintegrate at any moment, clearly attempting to reject the foreign object that is Azathoth's tentacle pulsing on his skin but the pain is diluting ever so slightly. It must be one of his persona's powers- a type of regeneration but really he doesn't know if he prefers his half rotten hand or an amputated one.
His glare is obvious, his lips flattened while his nostrils flare. He forces himself to breathe slowly, trying to calm himself down but this Akira(or Ren's) words hurt. He couldn't believe him right now. "I make you what?" His lips fall, the angry tension easing off of him as he raises a brow in confusion. "Why would I- tch, I- do you think I am obsessed with you or something? Was your Maruki supposed to be like that?!"
"Either ways if I had to make you do anything I would make you fix this-!" There's a ring of orange around his eyes as the right side of his clothes shimmer- a moment of weakness as his eyes crinkle in pain as the right side of his all white suit materializes to his torn therapist attire. The previous burn marks on his arm are replaced with green pulsing around them then there's a drop.
Then another drop.
Maruki's eyes follow down to stare at cylindrical shells at his feet. No that's-!
"Oh my god those are bullets..." Bullets laced in his own blood now poking out of his skin- as if Azathoth was doing live surgery on him. No wonder he couldn't feel his own hand. "..."
"Hn-! Hn-! Hn-!"
His breaths grow short as his hand shakes. "You've...I don't know what I did to you okay? I swear it."
"Though right now I should be worrying about myself. Clearly." There's no way knowing if he could attack him again and he doesn't want to risk turning his back around someone he's not sure how to predict. "Toss that gun away- then I will leave."
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The way Maruki is always ready to shut him down when his thoughts are heading a direction Maruki doesn't like; the way Ren alone hasn't been actualized. The way the fate of the entire world was Ren's decision to begin with.
Maybe what's happening to Maruki's arm would disturb him more if it was happening to another person, but all Ren can see is that it's holding Maruki back, lessening the danger.
1/3
"This is literally the first time I am meeting you-!" The tone of anger slips in his voice again as he regards this young man who can't be the Akira he knows. The Akira he's quite literally indebted to for the sake of his own research, for the sake of others like Sumire or-
Even him.
He wanted to repay his kindness in some way but seeing his doppelganger here, shaking from his own presence is as confusing as it is horrifying. His own hand, even while the bullets of the Riot Gun are still being surgically removed by the scales of his own persona- is only relevant at the back of his mind. He knows very well he needs to be careful. He could try to steal that gun with which- that persona was linked somehow. In that way he could safely escape but...
What if its not his arm this time? What if its his entire body? What if its Azathoth?! Because without him he wasn't even sure if he would be standing here right now- knowing how this boy was acting.
He purses his lips together as his arm is once again concealed. Fine, if compassion doesn't work, he won't force it on him. He's sure he has his reasons- if he's anything like the one he knows.
"What made you like this?"
Why are you scared, doctor?
Those who reject paradise deserve to be thwarted. This one is one of them.
Maruki takes a deep breath as he regards Azathoth's words- now letting his hands rest on his sides as another tentacle shoots up behind him and grounds itself further- now lifting him as another follows suit. Like a spider backing up on a wall with Maruki at the centre of its body. He tests his proximity with the other- knowing he's threatened but he doesn't do anything just yet.
Re: 2/3
What...what was that memory just now?
Did that belong to Azathoth as well?
If he's capable enough to incapcitate a strong willed woman like Wakaba...did that mean he could do other things as well? Such as...
"He doesn't accept Sparrow-san for who he is now and thinks he'd be better off dead. I don't think he'd be too happy with you, either, so it might be a little dangerous if you looked for him." He vaguely remembers Kasumi's voice. It was not even once did she warn him- it was nearly three times she explained that Sparrow couldn't even read him. If he had nothing to do with Sparrow, surely he would come off normal like this Kasumi from the other universe, wouldn't he?
And then there was this whole thing about him being unable to find Ren in the depths of mementos.
His head hurts.
If this...this Ren here is acting like this-
What are these memories? What is Azathoth?
How can something like this grow to be his persona?"You're..."
Re: 3/3
"Huh."
His lips curl up a little as if he's with the strongest Eureka! ever. He's still worried, he's still afraid but...he can work around this.
"I think I finally get it."
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Okay so his previous assumption was correct. Ren really wouldn’t attack him if he stays afar and right now- he can't afford to get personal. Hell, he shouldn't get personal in the first place- he needs to be mature about this.
He holds out his other proper arm and gestures away from Ren, hand thrown back as Azathoth quickly responds to him by diving around Ren and going back to the stall, its appendages growing close as he traps the bowl of Ramen inside it- sealing it in an air tight mechanism where not a single drop spills from his food.
Sure, his priorities are all over the place right now but he is hungry. In fact the regeneration of his arm had taken away significant amounts of his energy so the less mistakes he makes right now- the better.
"Don’t take it personally," he offers a wry smile. "I see you still like the thick noodle broth, hm?"
"Ren?" He finishes as one of his eyes narrow.
"...You are so similiar to the Akira I knew," his smile sobers up as he regards him. "But you're that one."
He turns away from him this time, looking over his shoulder to keep an eye on his movement. "Let's hope for your and-" he stops. He shouldn’t mention him just yet. "Your sake I don’t run into you again without warning." Sure he's the one with the destroyed arm here but...Ren must be in agony right now. If he was the same Ren who was close to Sparrow.
He will work around this. He always has. With his words, with his actions because this Ren once also trusted his Maruki.
With his parting he gestures with his head at a pole and just like that- he's flying again. This time he has control or perhaps its still a facade considering his hands are shaking again.
He needs to do something about his memories.
Just like that, the octopied doctor disappears away from the greens of the park to the busy buildings of the once alive metropolis.