personavelvetroomdr | dropkicks him right into the velvet room

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dropkicks him right into the velvet room

[The Velvet Room is now host and occupant to a Goro Akechi who is lying flat on his back. It certainly seems he arrived that way, and he shows no sign of moving yet. His school blazer seems to have been rained on, although in the blue lighting of the Velvet Room it only seems darker than usual.

Maybe once he's been encouraged to move into better lighting, it'll be noticeable that the rain was of a distinctly red nature, but that's for then, and this is now.

Oh, and there's also a blue butterfly flittering nervously at Igor, who seems sad at its presence.

Poke the (not exactly) sleeping Akechi?]

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That's impossible.

[Because Joker's dead. Because there's no way they could have won against him at his full strength, and there weren't any other enemies that would have attacked him in there.]

Is that right?

[He doesn't say any more than that; just lifts his eyebrows, glancing sideways as they walk. Not all of them, clearly, succeed the way this one did. And not all of them—presumably, if what he's been told can be relied on—even make the attempt.]

I suppose... in theory... there could be a version of myself who didn't go through with the order.

[Saying the words is like pulling teeth. Perhaps one day that'll be him - that was his end of the deal, after all.]

But how likely do you think that would be, without outside interference?

[He isn't considering any other option.]

[He doesn't look around.] Funny you should say that. I'm aware of four versions of events now, including yours and my own, and you're the first to have succeeded.

So. Congratulations are in order, I suppose. Sorry it didn't work out.

[Dry as it is, he is sorry. The idea that killing Ren successfully or not might have made the difference was one of the last straws he had.]

Success. If anything's going to make me puke, it's the idea that that was success.

[And he really does feel nauseous for a hot minute there. He doesn't say anything else to chase that feeling away.]

One of the first clues about the god that erased me from the world was that I did it. He won the election, and then I told him. He- [Pause] already knew. Everything. So I tried to drag him down into hell with me, publicised it all. And no. One. Cared.

[His pace picks up, less because he wants to get there faster and more because it's something to focus on, to do. And of course it still hurts. But that's easier to deal with and work through.]

So, no. I don't think I will take your congratulations.

[Shit. It is the same scenario—the god that erased Okumura's group from cognition. And the same plan, to the letter. And—]

... what do you mean, they didn't care?

[In case you were wondering when this Akechi is from, that probably gives it away—he has not yet done what the other Akechi did.]

I know he'll try to suppress it. But that's not how it works, with a story that much fun. [Ugh. His voice thins; they have to care. He's counting on it. He's killed for it.]

... they have to care.

I mean, they didn't care. No one cared about anything. They just blathered on about how they no longer knew what to think, and since it was so hard, they just... gave up thinking for themselves.

[A thin smile. So thin.]

Oh, he tried to suppress it. But I don't think it would have made any difference even if he hadn't.

So you see? It was all meaningless.

No, wait a second. [He just... needs a moment here. He draws to a halt, grabs other-Akechi by the arm to turn him.]

It wasn't meaningless. I can adjust for that. I don't need the public!—you must agree? I already knew I was going to need a different lever—I can threaten him with a change of heart. [He knows there's no way he can take on Shido's Shadow.] If his reputation's immune, then I threaten him directly....

I can still make him pay! You must know that? [Oh, Akechi.]

And with what time? [He can't do much more than simply let himself be grabbed; he doesn't have the energy to break free and doesn't even care to.] When are you even from, anyway? A month ago? Two months?

And what was the entire mask of the righteous Detective Prince for anyway, if we didn't need the validation of a public that'll just throw us away the moment they don't need us anymore?

And if you fail, you just end up where I am - if Lavenza survives long enough to find you, that is. Or if she cares to trust you enough to try.

I never needed—! [But he breaks off. He can't lie to himself—not to his own face, at least. He knows he needed them—to call his name, to admire him; he'd liked it far too much. Like he knows, now, that he needed Shido to pat him on the head, to be torn down, defeated, overthrown.

That moment he's dreamed of, in the prime minister's offfice, when he would finally have been free. From all of it. Forever.]

It was the second when I left. November. I spoke to Shido the evening before. I was going to do it! [Just a bit of what he's feeling, bursting through his control.]

[He smiles, when this other self stops rejecting him, defending himself. He's been there, he's lived it, who better to tell himself to cut the bullshit?

And then-]

I'll give you a single word of advice, then: don't.

[—and he draws back, silenced. Is that really it? Is that all there is to it?]

... I'd already figured out I don't need to kill him. [Though he's never failed a job. Never refused one, though he can talk his way out of a lot of Shido's excesses.]

It might be too late for you, but it's not too late for me.

[But what he really wants, what he's dreamed of, what he's needed, is that moment with Shido, face to face. That moment Akechi can no longer be denied, when Shido will understand he owes everything to the son he abandoned. When Akechi will finally step out of his shadow.

Threatening Shido from hiding, controlling him from hiding... what even is the point?]

That's the thing with being offered a second chance. It isn't too late. Do you think I'd just lie there and let myself die like a dog if there was a way to still get even a scrap of what I wanted?

And I will. I'll do whatever it takes. I'll take on Shido, I'll take on God, and if I have to, I'll use the Phantom Thieves to do it.

[There's not an ounce of "power of friendship" or "my bonds give me strength" in his words or tone. If anything, he sounds a little close to unhinged - but then, he was only erased just before arriving here, with all the baggage that goes with it.]

[And it's something he immediately, instinctively relates to. Other-Akechi might have been reincarnated from nonexistence as a butterfly's carousel, or whatever the shit, but at least he has his priorities straight.]

Well. Believe me, you're in the right place for that. [The park is heading by them on the right. Before long, they'll be out of the apartment buildings area, and heading south into Inokashira district proper.]

Everyone here is so helpful. So invested in undoing their past mistakes, or changing their future. Play nice and ask around, and people will fix our oh-so-glaring mistakes for us.

Edited 2023-09-24 01:12 (UTC)

[In spite of the place not exactly having much to it or any sentimental value, he's interested in getting 'home' even just for... well, the science of seeing how accurate it is, as well as knowing there's somewhere he can crash that has a bed.]

According to Lavenza, that's "precisely what the Velvet Room is for," although usually it's usually just the room, not several cities tied together with the power of belief.

[He rolls his eyes at the last part - he still thinks the whole thing is bullshit, but not as much as, maybe, a day or two ago.]

Far be it from me to look a gift horse in the mouth, though.

Is that right? I heard it was meant to aid us on our journeys. [As if he got so much as a sniff of a "Velvet Room" before he arrived here.]

You'd think if she was going to aid yours, she could have started a little sooner. Or was there some reason she was unavailable?

[Like being missing, for instance. The supposedly-missing Velvet Room attendant.]

[It's a moment before he answers.]

...It is. According to her, at least. Hm. That's a good questio-

[If he sounds as though he's just been cut off, that's because he was. He stops dead still, face contorting in rage.]

FUCKING FAKE GODS CAN SHOVE IT UP THEIR-

[Let's hope there weren't any kids around for that one.]

[He relates. Oh, how he relates. Plus, this one screams as well as the Shadow he met in Mementos; imagine being that free. Or that broken, which is pretty much the same.]

They do get around. [He resists the urge to slide a knife alongside the words.] Let me guess, she had her hands full? [With Joker.]

[It's what happens when the last thing you remember is people just walking past as you lie there dying.]

She says Igor would have had us as his "guests," but there was a coup. Lavenza here didn't make it out unscathed.

We were cheated, and even when I go back I won't have access to the same privileges. No matter that they're currently compromised.

[Bitter? Him? Absolutely. Who cares that Akira's right in the lion's den - he's put himself in that same position for years by choice.]

... the two little girls. [The ones walking around with Ren, in his counterpart's world.] Who allegedly work for a fake Igor.

That's how you remember it? [He sounds calm enough, but he's breathing a little quicker. Shit, would he even have accepted help if it was offered? Or would he have insisted on doing it all alone?

He knows the answer. It just—if someone would just have offered, perhaps things might have been different.]

Two little-? [He looks totally stumped for a moment.] Ah. Caroline and Justine. That would be her.

I have to admit, I never paid them much mind before. I'd try and think about who they could be, or what they could possibly do for him, but I'd never be able to focus on them for too long when they weren't right there.

I suppose I know why, now.

[Interesting. You just forgot about them?, he's about to say.] You just...?

[But ah, now he thinks on it. He had them down as two elementary schoolgirls, cosplaying, not so different from many of the other reprobates Amamiya spent his time with. Yet weren't they obviously...?]

I suppose I see what you mean. They were obviously supernatural, in retrospect. I had them down as some sort of community service.

Precisely. And no one else seemed to see anything odd about them, either.

[He rolls his eyes, hardly as annoyed about missing that one clue as he had been about having been cheated out of services that were owed to him.]

"The Velvet Room is hidden from the cognition of those without a contract" - I have to assume the same goes for retaining an understanding of its attendants.

"Contracts? That sounds like Joker." Bargaining with almost everyone he knows, trading back and forth and yet getting drawn into their lives. Akechi can't even say he's any better, at this point.

They're still walking; he draws to a halt. "Are we heading anywhere in particular, by the way? Or do you need me to clear out before you go to your front door?" He's a bit surprised it wasn't the same building.

I'm not surprised. Whatever that false god did to the place, I doubt he could change it entirely without throwing out any need for pretence.

[He chooses not to bring up the implied contract he currently has with Lavenza - even though that's hardly with the Velvet Room, as far as he's concerned.

And then when they stop-]

I would have thought you'd recognise the building. We are only across the road from it, after all. [And they are. It's right there. And as far as he knew, doesn't have a magical don't-notice-me field around it.] I don't care if you come in after me. Just don't expect much.

[And he starts moving again.]

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