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knifemonopoly) wrote2021-02-05 06:28 pm
knifemonopoly) wrote2021-02-05 06:28 pm
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WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, PLAYER1. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 10.11.0.0.01 *** PLAYER1 has joined 10.11.0.0.01 <PLAYER1> If you're looking for someone you knew as Yugi before June, you've found him! It's Atem, leave a message. | ||||
no subject
[She's not sorry, so she doesn't say she is; but she feels that he doesn't like it, so she doesn't do it again. Simple as that.]
I don't want to ask you anything. You can say whatever you wanna say when you want to say it. We just missed you.
[. . . Hm.]
And we're pissed somebody hurt you this bad.
[You're mine, right? Nobody should hurt you but me.]
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The person who did this....he's going to answer for it. We'll make sure of that. But I don't want you to think about anything bad until you're ready to!
[When it happened to Atem...he'd immediately thrown himself into revenge. He hadn't had any friends who'd lend him their bathtub. Maybe Noa might have, if Atem had asked, but instead, what Atem had asked for was a co-conspirator, a partner in crime, and Noa had given him that.
Vengeance was what Atem had needed. But it might not be what Komaeda needs. It's not what he's asking for, by coming here, by crawling into Lila's bathtub. And the way Adam had dealt with his own abduction was entirely different.]
Being reminded of what happened, when what you want is to get away from it...it can hurt really badly. I don't want to do that to you!
I'll get you a book, if that's what you want. It'll only get ruined if you're not careful, and most shades are telekinetic! Or we can talk about something else.
[A shrug of his bat-shoulders, his wings tucking back into place. This is a complicated, emotionally fraught situation...Atem figured the best thing to do would be to stay practical, not to add the big messy knot of what he's feeling to it -- he's not even sure he wants Komaeda to get a good look at it later, when things are calm. But keeping distant is the wrong move, too...]
I won't ignore you.
no subject
But still, he sits in this tub, tucked so carefully like a fragile doll between Lila and Atem's platitudes. Don't they know who he is? What he's done? He told Atem in more detail than he ever told Lila—about what sort of horrors he wrought on others, on himself. Still, they sit there, coddling him like he wasn't part of Ultimate Despair. Like he hadn't been expelled from Hope's Peak Academy. Like he hadn't been kidnapped by a serial killer. Like he hadn't watched his parents die right in front of his eyes.
It sickens him to be treated so sweetly, because he doesn't deserve it. He's killed people, razed buildings, ended the world with despair—all for the sake of hope. He doesn't deserve softness and kindness, even when he leans into it so desperately with a longing he couldn't put words to. Even when he turns his gaze to the water's surface and watches the shape of his reminder of the past ripple with waterdrops.]
It's not even the first time I've died here you know? And honestly, this time was less painful. [Before, not after, he thinks to himself. You're my comfort, he responds to Lila.] I didn't see him, but he's a doctor. He reminds me of the doctors from Hope's Peak Academy — the sort that do experiments. I think that's what he wanted all my body parts for.
[But he pauses that thought, lifting his left arm from beneath the water to present its gnarled stump.]
Too bad I removed this one myself! [A laugh, almost forced, before he sighs:] ah... Souda-kun is going to be mad that I lost his hardwork.
no subject
[She's so focused on pressing the whole of herself warm against him that she doesn't think about the details. Hasn't for a moment. Being this close is like resting under a comfortable weight, snuggling under a heavy blanket — only to have it ripped off when he starts talking about body parts.]
[In a flash she pulls back her control from his limbs, frightened by the instinct to flex a tail that's still growing back. The lights dim and flicker sullenly before she remembers to exhale.]
If he gets mad at you for that, I'll kick his ass.
[Her voice is sulky, a tone she doesn't really use unless she's with Komaeda. They're both brats. Sometimes at the same time.]
[Don't tell me it's less painful. You're in pain now. She doesn't even say this in the privacy of their shared space, but the emotion of it, sad and prickly and frustrated, isn't something she's able to hide.]
no subject
Like there's nothing to be done about doctors at a school who do experiments. Not from here.
Stay focused. One thing at a time. What can be done, from where Atem is, with the skills and leverage he's got?]
When we find him, I'll keep an eye out for it. Get it back, if I can.
And, about that...there's only one thing I want to ask. If you're not up to answering, then don't worry about it!
But...
...do you know where he is?
[Easy enough to answer with a yes or a no. No need to go into any more detail than Komaeda's up to. He doesn't need all of it right away, even a yes can wait. But, if Komaeda does know...then, maybe, they can get Fabius Bile before a third corpse shows up.]
no subject
His eyes, always distant, as if seeing past everything towards something unattainable, are decidedly fixed on Atem. The sleepless flesh that rims them is prominent, but he doesn't feel tired, not really. His head is too full, and not just because of Lila.]
Hmm... let me think.
[And he closes his eyes, deep-diving into memories that will play like a film reel for both he and Lila to watch. Sterile lights again, a scene of cadavers on other tables—but no Steve—the smell of formaldehyde and sterilizer thick in the air, with an underlying stench of decay.
Above, past the blinding light, is rafters. Rusted girder beams spiderwebbing beneath a metal roof with a few patched holes.]
Maybe some kind of warehouse... I think. I was drugged, so I don't quite remember.
no subject
Doesn't matter if you don't remember perfectly. Everything you know about the whole thing, start to finish, is usable. Anything you can give is good enough.
[In the privacy of their shared space, the emotion she exudes is that of a cat winding her way between his legs, rubbing against him, attentive and needy and reassuring. But there's steel underneath, a flexible but unbreakable spine.]
Would have been smarter to pull from more than one group. We have data points now. We can learn. He fucked up, like men do when they think they're the smartest one around.
[He fucked up by taking two people who matter to her. First Steve, who was bad enough, and now Komaeda. There's no room for a third strike. It's done. These people are hers to hurt or to care for, and she's made her decision which way the chips are going to fall.]
cw burnscars/burn metaphors/homicidal ideateon/gore ideation
Atem's glad he's in his fog form and not his usual one. He doesn't have to feel the stiffness and pull of the burn scars over his back when he moves, under his feet when he walks. He got used to them and barely felt them anymore before the two-month naga temp, but the few days before the fog where he was back in his own body had reminded him, again, of what had happened.
As if he'd needed reminding.
Dully, anger rises in him, familiar like an old enemy, augmented by the terrible smell that came in with this fog; it's anger he's lived with since they found Steve. Like a deep burn, it hurts worst on the edges, now: it's worn through the skin where it's strongest, damaging nerves and leaving it feeling sick and wrong but numb, but where he's less used to it, where new damage is being done, that's where the pain is.
Atem's mouth closes, and he gives a nod.]
Good thing I'm familiar with Bavan's warehouse district...I spent a lot of time there looking for Daniel, at the beginning of March.
[Before he had any friends besides Noa -- when all there was to do, when someone had gotten him, was to be sure he got them back. He'd spent his days in them, sometimes, trapped in the lightless corners, pacing back and forth, waiting for the sun to go down so he could keep looking.
He wants to go looking again now. He wants to tear out Fabius's heart with his own hands and drive big, unkind fog-form fangs into it. But even through the fog that's got him mad, that's got him hungry, he knows the culprit's a naga, and they're not just fast, they've got petrification powers. Going in by himself without knowing what he was in for would be handing Fabius more material for whatever he's doing. But...Atem can do some scouting, tomorrow night.]
We're going to get him. I don't want to talk too much about him. I came here to talk to you! But...I promise, he'll pay for what he's done.
[Atem really does think Fabuis Bile is trying to do something. He thinks monster parts are being used to power a portal, or something like it...it's so much like what happened to him...
...but there are two things you can do when a friend's been hurt, and that's hurt the attacker back, or stay with the friend. The first one's on the back burner. Atem can't get lost in bad memories and imagined situations where Komaeda's the one on the bloody sacrifice-table now, or fog-rage-fuled ones where a device designed in a workshop in Dyster cracks a worm-naga's ribcage and pulls it open, so a pale hand can reach in and pull the beating heart out. Game over.]