thecrossinglogs | so if you wash your hands of where you've been until you flood the second floor

WHO: Nagito, OTA
WHAT: Nagito runs into another of those mist hallucinations. He likes this one a lot less.
WHERE: the walkways near the mangroves, where the mist is thickest
WHEN: sometime before the sleepover
WARNINGS potential for mania, general upsetting Nagito behavior, but it's not a guarantee

[Nagito hasn't done much searching here, after the first incident. The thing is, he suspects most people are avoiding the area for similar reasons. That means that if something is going to be missed, it could very well be in amongst the mangroves. Even when it's acting normal, the mist makes it even easier to conceal things. So he's out here again. He's tied a boat to the edge of the walkway, but he's not in it yet. He's picking his way carefully along the walkways, occasionally prodding at the water with a stick long enough to reach the bottom when he thinks something might be worth dredging up. He's doing that, and he's focusing very hard on doing that, and he's not looking at the girl who dogs his steps. Strawberry blond hair and ice blue eyes, with a perfectly tailored outfit of blacks and reds with just enough white to make everything really pop. She's drifting out over the water, so she has to be a hallucination. He isn't looking at her, except he doesn't dare let her entirely out of his sight, either. He swears he can hear her laughing.

His foot knocks up against a rock. He hardly has to think about it; he's reaching down and throwing it at the girl before he really knows he's moved. The rock sails through her head. But she's still there. He spits his words like he thinks she might be able to hear him somehow.]

You're even more pointless like this. Hateful and hopeless.

[He wishes she'd go away.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He really does have this full-body reaction, huh. In a way Need is envious. She can hate people, but she can't feel even hatred so strongly, let alone the other emotions that have him in their grip. When she has her empathic powers she can share in the feelings of others and it's like having them herself, but she's cut off now. Distant.

She wonders if this person was really this much younger than him, or if it's that she died - it sounds like she died - years ago.]

Will it disappear if you head somewhere not this foggy?

[being here with the apparition, even if it doesn't seem to be acting like it can hear or see him, is probably not good for this strange, strange kid.]

She should. [He doesn't know what he would do if she didn't.] I was trying to search this area, is all. Someone has to, and everyone is avoiding it. I shouldn't let some vision stop me from helping.

I'm not avoiding it. Actually, I'm going to stay here a good while longer.

[this is her saying 'you can get out of this conversation by leaving'. Need genuinely doesn't look bothered at the thought of remaining here.]

You won't be abdicating that responsibility if you leave. What are you looking for?

[Nagito would really like to leave. His eyes leave Junko in favor of looking in the direction of the village. Still...]

It wasn't anything specific. Anything useful--not just things we could use, but information as well. This would be a good place to hide things.

It would be. The visibility alone is suggestive.

[Need wonders if Nagito staying here with the image of his nemesis - she hasn't thought of asking for her name - is a form of harming or punishing himself in a place without actual pain. But he's not so set on that that he doesn't want to stop. Unless he's just wanting to get away from Need herself, and her questions.]

You could write to me. I don't see all the same things you do, but I'm not blind, either. No one I've seen here consumes my attention.

[No hallucinations consume Need's attention--how lucky, Nagito thinks, with full awareness of the irony.]

If you really don't mind. I'm sure she'll leave when I do.

[She'll vanish. She won't follow him. She'd better not follow him.]

It doesn't do me any harm. You fretting and seething here is more distracting, if anything.

[He seems to be coming down a little bit. Need pauses for a second. Would it be encouraging his strange fixation... then again, it's so strongly rooted she's not sure indifference does anything either. She's also not sure how much he meant it when he passed the things out, he might find it insulting. Oh, well; she's got to take risks sometimes.

Need comes out of a pocket with the YOU'RE DOING FINE Makoto sticker, the worse for wear and with the sticky side covered in... leather dust?, but recognizable.]

Here. You need this more than me.

[Nagito's expression twitches into a smile. It's small, but there's something more real about it as well.] You kept it. [He knew when he gave them out it was possible people wouldn't. Most of the others don't really understand how special Makoto is. He reaches out to take the sticker.]

I'll have to give you another one later.

I have a lot of pockets.

[She forgot she had it until a second ago. Need presses it into his palm, wondering what's going on in there. Seems like a positive. There's something endearing and sad about that surprise.]

You know if you do that I'll just have to give it back again. I don't... need that kind of thing. My heart doesn't rise or fall as much as other peoples' anymore.

Maybe I could sneak you one when you're not looking. [He knows he can't--not without some serious preparation that he wouldn't waste on something like this, anyway.] But I suppose I can just think of this as keeping your sticker safe for you.

[He hasn't noticed yet--and maybe that has something to do with why--but Junko has vanished.]

If you manage that it's going right over your temple.

[she just doesn't want to be stuck carrying things.

A horse and a teenager who looks quite a bit like Need have appeared past her shoulder. Shorter than her - young enough he wouldn't have stopped growing - with very different hair, long black hair braided back, and a more serious, sober cast to his features. Like her he's got a chest tattoo with staring eyes over the collarbones, though it's new and the details are slightly different.

They're not sticking around but continuing on into the fog, the boy leaning against the horse with obvious affection, just at the edge of Need's vision. She doesn't turn.]

[Nagito's eyes flick toward the new hallucinations. Not ones he recognizes, which is a relief. A horse hallucination, too--but it isn't really surprising that animals would count as well, now that he thinks about it. He's pretty sure that from Need's angle she could probably see that something appeared, if not what. He's somewhat aware it might be rude to address it. He's also curious. He splits the difference.]

Is the chest tattoo a cultural thing? Or familial?

Not sure. [The line between her eyebrows deepens as she casts back.] It was... outsiders called us the 'painted people' for all our tattoos, but I don't remember if it was just our clan or the nation who loved them like that. [Need doesn't have other tattoos, or not visible ones.]

That's that idiot kid with my horse, right?

[Now she does turn her head but only sees the boy's back and the horse's rump receding into the fog. Need shakes her head. She doesn't seem strongly affected by this - puzzled, a little annoyed.]

Well, it's my horse. She'd bite anyone but me and, apparently, kin.

so if you wash your hands of where you've been until you flood the second floor

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject