and i ride in my red dress, and time stretches endless

[willowandoak]

Ren's been antsy lately. Easily startled, prone to snapping and to cringing away from stuff he handled better when he first got here. Stressed? Maybe that's the word. Owain stirs, which happens less than it used to, but Ren squishes him back down before he has the chance to offer alternative interpretations for Ren's state of mind.

It doesn't matter anyway. Ren has a street in Shinjuku to explode.

While it will be satisfying, the real point of the exercise is to answer the list of questions he has about the immediate aftermath of an explosion and the following hours. They all walk blithely around in this place they've found themselves in, but they don't know shit about where on the cognition-reality scale it is or how the cognitions process their surroundings. They haven't needed to know yet, but that could change at any time.

Thankfully, it's pretty easy to make a bomb when you can just wander into anywhere you want and grab stuff, so Ren has everything set up. He's done a test explosion to make sure his math was right and removed the risk of little kid interlopers and everything. He's chosen a side street, big enough to get cognitive traffic but not so big that a giant hole in the road will annoy real people. Now all that's left is to clear the area and do the deed.

You might encounter him at the following times:


1: bring your salt, bring your cigarette

Ren might want to blow up a street. Indeed, he might be hoping to take out some of the shit-awful cognitions. But he's not interested in killing any actual people right now, and that means he has to do a sweep of the area beforehand to clear out anyone who might be around.

The bomb is big enough that it'll take out not just the street he's chosen but a good section of the buildings on either side, and of course there's a fair chance that a fire will start and spread, even though Ren waited for a rainy day. So he starts work fairly early in the morning. He combs through shops and the empty apartments above them, he disturbs cognitions on the toilet, he pokes his head into nearby alleyways, he puts up handwritten signs: I AM BLOWING UP THIS AREA. GO AWAY. (Those are also part of the experiment.) Being responsible kinda sucks, actually.

If he finds a real person, he's going to approach—or perhaps you see him first.


2: i'll turn your sea to a desert

A huge explosion shatters the normalcy of a drizzly early afternoon. The shockwave rocks the buildings in Shinjuku for several streets on all sides of the blast site, shattering glass and toppling signs. If you happen to be looking in the right direction, you might see a plume of smoke and debris rising over the buildings, though the fire at its heart is surprisingly small. A moment later, rocks and other debris rain from the sky, pelting those who haven't had the forethought to seek cover.

After pressing the button to trigger the detonator, Ren has taken shelter in a bank with thick stone walls several streets away. The bomb takes a moment to work, as he knows it will, but that doesn't stop him from wondering if something's gone wrong with the remote signal, or the detonator itself, or the booster—but as the countdown in his head reaches zero, the bomb detonates. The bank trembles, rattling windows in their frames, but Ren isn't stupid enough to stand near those.

Something releases inside him as the ground trembles beneath his feet, destruction he caused with his own hands. He closes his eyes as the walls settle and lets out a slow breath. But the explosion itself was only half the point; he waits for the debris to fall outside, then puts on a facemask to protect his lungs and steps out of the building. As cognitions scream and fret, fleeing the scene—and he takes note that they're doing that—he walks calmly towards the hole in the street, hands in his pockets as ever.

The buildings on either side are in ruins, half-destroyed with their innards exposed to passersby. The first of Ren's questions about the nature of their surroundings will be answered now, but he's not paying attention; his gaze is fixed on the gutted structures. They evoke... something. He can't name the feeling. Something hungry.

There aren't many fires, at least.

Anyone who is (perhaps unwisely) drawn to the source of the explosion is likely to see him there, a lone still figure, recognizable as an Akira or a Ren by his hair and eyes, even if you don't know him to identify him by his shabby clothes.


3: bring your boy, bring your bottle

It's early evening by now. Ren is back at the scene of the crime, or perhaps he never left, although he's trashed the facemask by now in light of the lack of weird fires. He's set up a little lounge chair under a beach umbrella near the site of the explosion so he can watch comfortably. The site itself looks almost like it did at first, but Ren is already starting to notice changes. And the behavior of the cognitions is interesting.

Also worth noting, in his view, is the fact that no emergency services have showed up at any point. He's seen cops on street corners and shit, but if they don't respond to emergencies, could it be that this is a de facto cop-free world? A paradise.

He has food, too. Energy drinks and soda in a cooler, and all the snacks he could grab in a giant bag next to him. He's never going to get through them all. It was just fun to take them.

He'll be here for a little while, observing and making mental notes.

Comments

for pheasantboy!

[willowandoak]

[pheasantboy]

And it just so happens that Akechi's plans have brought him to Shinjuku. If he's supposed to remember, then it will help to go to places he remembers, right? And he has oddly fond memories of living there.

Actually, of living not a thousand miles from where he's found the sign. "I AM BLOWING UP THIS AREA. GO AWAY." He doesn't, of course. Instead, he curls his finger to his chin, and considers it. Who's blowing things up? Why on earth? And how?

He ought to leave, of course. He'll get clear in just a moment. But it's just... so interesting.

[willowandoak]

It's nothing more than dumb luck that has him passing back across the backstreet where he posted one of the signs, and it's a lifetime of caution that's taught him never to pass a narrow street without at least glancing in. Which is how he sees the Akechi just fucking... staring at the sign? What the shit. What's the point of posting them if they're just going to be lures.

"Hey," he calls out, starting over. "That's not a joke, I really am about to blow this place up."

[pheasantboy]

The voice breaks through his reverie, not for what it says but for who says it. Everything leaves him at once—his thoughts, his composure, the breath from his body. But Ren's not here. And if he was, he'd never talk like that, the way he used to.

He turns, afraid of what he might see. But it's just Ren, without his glasses, dressed down. A Ren, sure. Just not the one that matters.

"It's Kurusu-kun, isn't it?" He feels as dejected as he has since he arrived; it's like the Ren in front of him hasn't a care in the world. "If you wanted a firework display, I'm sure we could have arranged something."

[willowandoak]

"Nope. Ren Amamiya. I don't blame you for assuming, though." He eyes Akechi as he gets close. Something is... weird. Maybe it's just that he's sad all of a sudden, but that's weird too, that he's that emotive. "Fireworks are less fun than blowing up a street, don't you think?"

Akechi may or may not say he agrees, but Ren has a feeling that most of them agree in their hearts.

[pheasantboy]

"Um." Not even an Akira, but a Ren? It's like someone grabbed his heart with barbed wire and tore it out. "I suppose it depends which street? I don't know if I can get behind acts of terrorism, if it's all the same."

Interesting in theory, perhaps, but not to do. Not if people might get hurt.

[willowandoak]

"It's an empty city. The perfect place to blow up. And there's stuff I'm trying to learn."

He doesn't go so far as to ask if Akechi is okay, but he is becoming increasingly concerned. He's so emotive. And, like... acts of terrorism, sure, Ren's Akechi wouldn't like terrorism either, but if Ren's Akechi took that much offense to what someone was doing, he wouldn't be so polite about it.

2

[rosemaudite]

"What did Shinjuku ever do to you?"

Haru saw the signs earlier, and decided to stick nearby enough to see what happened while not being inside the blast radius. Now that the deed is done, she can't help asking. There's no judgement in the question, simply curiosity.

(This is also not the Haru Ren's already spoken to. Gothier, for one thing.)

[willowandoak]

For a second, Ren just stares at her, with the same blank, half-present gaze that he turned on the ruined buildings.

That's a person, a little voice in the back of his mind finally reminds him, and he blinks. It... sure is a person. Another Okumura, at that, and this one dressed in a way that would probably drive her father crazy. Not proper. Maybe he should just give up on trying to figure out Okumuras at all.

"I lived here for a few months," is what he finally chooses to say. He could come up with a funny deflection, probably should, but. He doesn't.

[rosemaudite]

"Fair enough. If the damage sticks, would you like to blow up my father's headquarters?"

It'd just be more frustrating for everyone if the damage doesn't stick, though.

[willowandoak]

... Ren's eyes focus on her.

"Are you serious? Abso-fucking-lutely." That pigfucking pus-covered bloated leech on the world. Ren would kill him again if he could.

(The other Haru didn't like her giant house, either... He remembers that.)

[rosemaudite]

"Oh, excellent. Noir might object to the house taking that kind of damage, but I think even she could agree the offices aren't doing anything useful."

[willowandoak]

Noir, huh. "Should I be calling the other Okumura Noir? What should I call you, then? I'm Ren Amamiya, by the way," he adds, to avoid being called the other fucking name.

2: broken storm, come ride with me / bring your clouds & writhe with me

[thedevilinyourdetails]

The blasted-out streets of Shinjuku are fun to walk through in the aftermath of the detonation. Something about the screams of terror and broken windows are very...aesthetic. Calming, in a way. This is where he belongs, stalking somewhere between the tragedy and the aftermath, in the collapse between the push and the ground.

Or...used to belong, anyway. It's familiar to him, nonetheless.

Akira follows a few back alley paths to the center of the explosion, taking in the destruction, until he spots the perpetrator.

"Good job, kouhai," he compliments him. "It looks beautiful."

[willowandoak]

It takes a long moment for Ren to turn his attention away from the devastated buildings. His eyes fix on Akira with a strange, blank intensity.

"...Thanks, senpai." He might normally add in some more jokes about making Akira-senpai proud, or living up to his legacy, or whatever. He doesn't feel like it right now.

In fact, he turns to face Akira fully. He's been thinking about getting in contact with him for a few days, and now here he is. "I'm glad I ran into you, actually. I met an Akechi the other day."

His voice sounds kind of weird. Like he can't quite decide whether he wants to pretend to be calm.

[thedevilinyourdetails]

Something about Akira shifts. His chin tilts up, and though his smirk remains the same, something about the light in his eyes above it flattens and smooths itself out. "There are many Akechis running around. What about this one made you think of me?"

[willowandoak]

Ren's world narrows to just the two of them, which is worth noting when they're surrounded by the rubble of a freshly-exploded street.

"He's dead." His expression cracks as he says it, but only for a second. "But before that, he was one of the Akechis who worked for Shido. He had some interesting stuff to say about plotting against the leader of the Phantom Thieves."

[thedevilinyourdetails]

Akira's face remains motionless as his smile widens; not literally, but as the mouth of a cave seems to widen as it gets closer.

"Some...interesting stuff," he repeats, voice slowly rasping the implied question over his teeth like oil over clockwork gears. "About plotting against the leader of the Phantom Thieves."

[willowandoak]

God, the way he fucking says that. It takes Ren a couple seconds to convince himself to keep talking; to remind himself that he wants to get information, not stab Akira in the kidneys and leave him to bleed.

"Yeah. It kind of reminded me of some things you were saying when we met. About Akechi, remember?"

Akira knows what he's asking about. If he keeps playing the idiot, toying with the life of Ren's Akechi for his own amusement, maybe Ren will rethink the knife.

2 but like with the assumption that he assisted clearing the area in 1

[paysforall]

"I got the whole thing on video, if you're interested."

This Akechi, equally identifiable by his out-of-the-norm clothes, seems to materialize out of nowhere on the ruined steet, which is still free of cognitions for the time being. He has his phone held up and doesn't look like he's had an encounter with so much of a speck of dust, except that his hair is a bit more windblown than usual.

[willowandoak]

Ren blinks at Akechi for a second as the words filter into his consciousness. Then his eyes light up, in a way that would unsettle most people. Akechi might not be so easily unnerved.

"Yeah." Instead of stepping close to Akechi to see the screen better, he leans in.

[paysforall]

He has definitely seen worse.

The video is paused for now, though it's clearly a view from above at a moderate distance - one of the nearby rooftops, outside of the range of the blast itself, but maybe not entirely safe if there had been a fire to spread.

"It's probably easier if I just send it to you. None of us are paying for data here, after all."

[willowandoak]

"Sure." He gets out his phone. "Looks like you had a good view."

[paysforall]

Bzzt that's a real fast upload download. Too bad they can't take that home with them.

"Short-range teleportation is a hidden job benefit," Akechi replies. "Though you could probably get to any rooftop you liked the normal way without the cognitions trying to stop you."

[willowandoak]

Ren hits play and watches the explosion avidly. He didn't actually get to see it live, of course, so this is his first time watching the concrete crumple and the shockwave rip through the streets.

"What else can you do?"

He sounds distracted. He is distracted, but he's still going to note what Akechi says.