isawallflower | RYSLIG; ic inbox

Okay I'm like 80% sure you're just joking but on the chance you're not please do not try and find the bugs I am begging

i just want you to know i thought about waiting AT LEAST 10 minutes before responding again to scare you, but then i realized that would be really mean

Yes that would have been VERY MEAN do not think of doing it again!!!

....

I see...

[He can't even imagine what that must have been like. He had an acquaintance or two, work friends of friends, who'd been there and made it out, and they...from what little they'd said, it sounded horrible. Especially horrible to Adam, who wasn't used to things like high-stakes body-horror games of Mafia. The other Yugi's never done that, but...while he could see it happening, something about the test having to be burning gets through the game-framing coping mechanism, and makes him sit with the experience being a very, very bad one.]

And he only changed back once it was all...over?

[ She nods. ]

After we were all safe again. Someone...flew us back to Bavan, so we could rest. It took...awhile? I don't completely remember, I had...some other things to take care of. Definitely less than an hour.

[She tells him she doesn't think he's crazy. Somehow, despite himself, he believes her. It goes against every rule about the world that he's come to understand. Whatever she's done, Riley came from a different world than the one he or Narancia or Bruno did. By rights there should be an unbridgeable gap between them. She should pull away from him after this.]

[But then, she already was pulling away because she thought the same thing about him. That he couldn't understand, that he would never give her a chance to say her piece, that he would never forgive her. That he would think her as unworthy of forgiveness as she considers herself.]

[They're really too similar. This time he smiles like a sunrise, one of the easy slow smiles that were fairly common for Haruno, a serious boy who didn't take himself very seriously. The difference isn't as great as he wants it to be.]

Thank you. I really didn't expect anyone to . . . [He wavers, unsure how to explain what a blow it would be to present the reality of this fragment of his past to someone and have them disregard it, crumple it up and throw it over their shoulder dismissively. It would do a lot more damage than he has words for.]

[In the end, he shakes his head.] Just, thank you. That's all.

I don't think you're crazy, either. For what that's worth.

[ For a moment, his smile actually reassures her. The strange, horrible atmosphere that's been over them—that she put over them—lifts, and Riley feels like she actually has her friend back.

And then she flinches away, as something tightly squeezing her heart. Tears prick at her eyes, and she swallows them down. ]

That's...really nice of you, but... I don't really think I can agree.

[The message comes late at night. ]

Hello, Riley.

[He doesn't pry! That business could be "dealing with an injury," or it could be "avenging something that happened by inflicting injury." None of his business to stick his nubby little nose into. So, he brings the subject back around.]

So, if his works the same way mine does -- which is possible -- then it might be a sort of monster panic reflex. If I feel like I'm in trouble and need to get away, then my body turns into what it thinks is the best form to do that in. Like an adrenaline rush increasing the oxygen to your muscles!

If that's the case, then I'm not going to turn back until I'm not worried anymore. I've got to make my instincts believe I'm safe.

[Easier said than done. He's a predator animal, but there is a bigger, sharper predator animal down there. And after all his work with cats...]

[ She's tired and checking her laptop before bed.

This immediately wakes her up. She's been careless. ]

I'm sorry, okay? Just leave me alone.

[ She can't hide a grateful little sigh. There's many things Riley doesn't like to think about that've happened here, and those horrible 40 hours or so are at the very top of the list. The only thing to dethrone them is— ]

That makes sense! [ Ignore it. She decides to ignore it. ] I...don't really know what bats do to feel safe, though...

[ She frowns at her cat happily purring in her lap. ]

A natural predator probably isn't helping.

[He's very sorry, Steve. After everything you taught him, he's still not getting along with Riley's cat. He's let you down.]

...normally, I'm not bad with cats...

[He thought he'd be human when he met Maple. He tried! RIP.]

I don't really know, either. Should I go find a cave...?

[He's from before when videos of bats in blankets went viral.]

[Eridanus smooths his hands over the feathers that crest the slope of her shoulders, patting down the ones that have ruffled in a way that's reminiscent of a parent wiping dirt off of their child's face. Riley is worried, and rightly so, but his one hope is that she believes him when he says that she isn't alone.]

You won't have to, you have me, my sweet girl.

[He casts a smile down upon her, warm and fond.]

If Aunamee dares to harm a single feather on your head, death will be too merciful for the likes of him.

[ Riley looks between Maple and the poor bat on her ceiling, and then she abruptly stands, lifting her cat to her shoulder. ]

No, there're probably owls and stuff out there and...you don't really seem to have a lot of the bat-like instincts to keep yourself safe from them?

[ Blunt...! But she carries on with a positive chatter, as she holds up one finger, wait, and goes digging through a closet by the front door with one hand. Maple's relaxed enough not to realize what she's digging for is a cloth kennel, until he's deposited in it and starts crying. ]

But first step is to keep this little guy from getting any ideas. Ohhh, stop that, it's just for a little while.

[ This shouldn't be so reassuring. She's not entirely ignorant, she can put two and two together. Especially when thinking back on what she'd already been suspecting, with Eridanus and Lucius. The man she's willingly making her father, he has some...intimate knowledge with hurting others. Perhaps he enjoys it.

Perhaps, but. He affectionately straightens out her feathers. He kindly smiles at her. She's hungered for this, for so long that that's what matters most to her, that this is sincere. Riley drinks the moment in, despite it all, and manages to shakily return his smile. ]

You'll...take care of me.

[ It's enough to chase away the budding worries about her own character.

That, and a small bunch of fur brushing up against her leg; Maple's come to check out the commotion, it seems. ]

!!

[Direct hit to the pride, Riley. Ow. -3000 life points. If he weren't already stuck this way, he'd become a shame-bat. Eaten by an owl, indeed.

Scuse him he's gonna cling to this wall and feel every inch a small, humbled, flying mouse. What a mess he's in.]

[ The tragedy of all of this is she really doesn't realize she said anything off-base... Riley fusses with her cat for a few moments before placing his carrier on the couch. ]

If he keeps whining, I'll give 'im a treat to help cool him off...but that should probably help something! Now, hm... Maybe getting you something to eat...? What do bats like...?

[One more time: something is wrong.]

[This time it's him who's missing a piece. Maybe he's said it too carelessly. Maybe this wasn't the right time at all. He doesn't know which is true. Watching Riley carefully, he notes her distress and feels it seep into his bones like disease. It could make him brittle enough to break if he let it, hating himself for making her sad.]

[Is he crazy for thinking she needs someone to lean on? That's what memory and instinct tell him. After a moment, he nods slowly, weighing everything.]

You don't have to agree. We don't have to talk about you right now, unless you want to. We can talk about something else. That other place, or the stupid details of what I just told you, or Maple, or nothing. We can just sit, or walk, or you can fly away.

It's up to you, Riley. The only thing you can't do is push me away again. [The ghost of that smile returns.] I'm a lot more stubborn than you realize.

Edited 2021-04-13 23:35 (UTC)

[Eridanus' smile doesn't dim with her words and, affectionately, he lifts a finger to tip her chin up to him. He basks in the nervous glow of her smile, taking it for now, considering she's still likely shaken up with everything that's happened. He had days to mend those shattered thoughts, his mind broken, where as she has had mere hours.]

I will take care of you, Sunshine. [He pulls his talon from her chin, instead cupping her cheek in the gentle palm of his opaline hand,] from the moment you were born, until the very last star in the galaxy burns out, I will watch over and protect you — that, I promise.

[In that moment, his attention is wholly on Riley, until he feels the gentle brush of Maple at his ankle. Eridanus lowers himself from his tip-toed height, then crouches down to his haunches to run gentle claws along the kitten's spine.]

He's much bigger than when I last saw him.

[At Hestia's. Not... in that other world.]

Great.

[ She can probably gauge that he's smiling from the motion of his jaw muscles. ]

I've got coupons for days and days. [ A couple from Clint, the rest from when he was working at the place for his inaugural months on the peninsula. Regardless of what his answering machine still says, he kind of is the free pizza hotline. ] Top left drawer by my bed.

[ But even as he tells her where to find them, he contradicts himself by clinging harder. He doesn't know how soon the drug's going to kick in, or if it will before whatever's happening to the bones in his legs leaves him convulsing out of his own skin. He just knows he's not as afraid now that she's here. ]

[ It's only now, as her gaze finds her own reflection, Riley starts to notice her feathers, literally ruffled from stress. How pathetic she looks. It's because she's looking here that she even sees Giorno's soft expression, painted plain despite her attempt to avert her eyes. ]

You...

[ She presses her teeth together very tightly.

I'll always be on your team—

She had that, once. Probably not anymore. (She was going to fix, she was, she swears...!)

Riley forces herself not to think about that. If she starts getting lost in that night, she'll be stuck looking at the faces of Kate and Annleigh again, faces she thought would haunt her less than the people she killed—falsely. ]

...You know... I liked it 'cause...I could just be normal. It was...nice, having just...a normal family, even though it...you know. It was...like that.

It didn't, huh.
Ugh. This place is the worst with rules like that.

[A pause of her own. Considering. Thinking.]

Can I at least come check on you?

[Oh no did she really just -- ask me the most basic question: what do we eat? What do you think bats like, Riley!

He's dying up here. If he weren't already dead, he'd be dying. The other Yugi collects himself and tries, with only relative success, to not sound like he wants to sink into the ceiling.]

Different kinds of bats eat a number of things. Some eat fruit. Some catch bugs. But, uh...vampire bats...they, you know. You know what they eat.

[Awkward!!! He could talk about how vampire bats don't technically suck blood but that nerd fact doesn't apply here because the other Yugi definitely does! He can't fix this situation with trivia!]

[ His hand is so warm. Memories from the other world spin around her, slotting in over time after time of broken promises, halfhearted reassurances, or just plain old disinterest. Forever. He's going to protect her forever. For a moment, Riley's lost in bliss, grinning like a child through tears.

And then Maple pulls Eridanus' attention away, leaving her to collect herself. When she runs her knuckle over her eye to keep herself from crying again, for once it's not rough and punishing. ]

Y- yeah. Yeah, he's. He's become...a real troublemaker.

[ Even though she says this, Maple just seems happy to rub against Eridanus, purring joyfully. ]

[ As if reading his mind, Riley squeezes him very lightly, continuing the rhythmic massaging of his scalp. ]

It's okay. Later. I'm not going anywhere.

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<CheeryCherry>

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<ranger>

had to look up the actual twilight quote

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