hippocarnival | Daybreak Academy

[It's late when Toki comes back to the dorm room. The door's unlocked, so he sneaks in as quietly as he can, hoping Yuya's already gone to sleep. He'd spent the last several hours in Rex's van in the parking lot. There's dried blood on his shirt, around the collar mostly, but some streaks down the front and on the cuff of the left sleeve. It's crusted under his fingernails and around the cuticles of his left hand. The right has a few new bite marks amidst the scars from early ones. His left eye appears more of a lighter red, somewhat hazed over like a cataract. The white of his eye is bloodshot and there's fading purple and green bruises around the socket. It should be fine by morning. Magic. No one has to know. The fang punctures on his neck have healed over already, and no one will know about that either.]

[Yuya's half hanging off the bed, staring blearily ahead and too much running through his head to sleep. He doesn't even want to look at what time it is, and doesn't assume it's so late when Toki comes in.]

Hey... [Is the bleary response before he realizes oh, it's Toki, and then he pushes himself up on his arm.] Toki! Where have you been? You were gone for days!

[Not too many days, but enough days to be noticeable and without any warning and Yuya's only just now getting to confront it among everything else.]

[Oh shit. He's been successful in avoiding Yuya since he's come back from China, but it was only a matter of time.]

Yuya~! I keep missing you somehow~!

[But, it's Yuya, so that false cheerfulness doesn't last.]

I um... I went to China! It was like a spur of the moment decision and I was in the Mythril Cage with Maverick and had another vision about Kano and there were red stars and Maverick said that he was probably in a communist country, so I went to China! Maverick didn't want to come! So it was the middle of the night, and I just ran to Paris and got the next flight out and then I went to this city in one of the mountain regions called Urumqi and I got a sherpa and we were going to hike up the mountains because, well in the vision with the red stars, Kano was also in the mountains, and screaming, so it was like urgent, right!? Anyway! Urumqi! But Daybreak sent people and I couldn't avoid them for long because I had another vision and then they caught me at that point and they had like a jet waiting and everything of course because they knew where I was going to be! I got back like yesterday, or well the day before because it's like past midnight now!

You... you went to China? [Over a vision? He knows how difficult to understand Toki's visions are, if they're at all literal. He's actually glad they found him, or else he might've froze to death in the mountains or something.

He leans his cheek on his hand wearily.] I guess you didn't find anything about Kano there. I don't think he's in China.

[Yuya's not sure he's anywhere anymore.]

[Toki sits at his desk and crosses his arms on top of it, leaving heavily. Kano's just... gone.]

I didn't really have a lot of time to look, though! He could still be there; China's really big and there's a lot of mountains~!

[He's not at all confident Kano's anywhere near China.]

Now that I think about it, it's just really stupid to let Maverick's interpretation of one little part of a vision be the reason I went, but I'm just- I want to find him and there's like nothing! What if he's dead!?

[What if he's dead? He might as well be with what happened.

Yuya bites his lip as he slowly sinks down again on his bed, pressing his face into his arm.] He's not out there. We're not going to find him like that.

[Stupid fae, stupid Kano. What if he never comes back?]

He has to be somewhere! Even- even if it's just-

[He was going to say "a body", but he's interrupted... Kano kneels in the dirt. There's a small hole in front of him. He drops a handful of teeth into it and buries them. He makes a fist and blood trickles down onto the dirt... Toki knocks a book of his desk with an irritated screech.]

It doesn't make any sense!

[He laughs after that, because really, what did any of this mean?]

I just had another vision about Kano! You know where we can find him!? Planting teeth in a garden somewhere or whatever! Maybe he's in the greenhouse watering some magical tree of teeth with his blood!

He's not in the greenhouse. [Not watering magic teeth and the absurdity of it makes Yuya's blood run hot, because he knows what happened now and it's not Toki's fault, it's not like they had any better ideas looking before--]

He's not anywhere because my made a wish with the damn fey to not exist! [And he's crying into his arm again. It still hurts, he didn't want to say it.]

[The fey? That person on the network everyone was talking about, that made the kids show up? They can't find him because he doesn't exist. Toki's at a loss for words for once. It doesn't take long before he's crying too, but it's quiet tears instead of his usual sobbing. All of the searching and the worrying was for nothing. Kano did want to leave. And he didn't tell anyone. After a few minutes of silence, he wipes his eyes with his sleeve and turns his chair around to face Yuya.]

If... I-if he wished to not exist, why do we still remember him? Why is Shuuya still here? Kano exists in him, right? So, maybe it's not completely hopeless. Fey things mess up. Maybe it didn't work right and he can still come back.

[Does Kano still exist in Shuuya? Would they really forget him if he just made himself disappear, but leave Shuuya behind? The terms between him and the fey were so vague that Yuya's focused only on the part that's indisputable.]

... I want him to come back.

[He doesn't lift his head becuse he knows he's still crying. Maybe... maybe he should try and talk to this fey. Barter Kano back. Make them stop--whatever this is they're doing, causing all this trouble with little copies of everyone.]

Then let's get him back.

[That's what they had planned to do, only now they know what happened. There's no more searching involved. They know who's responsible. It isn't unreasonable to think a deal could be made, or that discussion was doomed to fail.]

The kids- the other selves, whatever they are, they're not... evil? There's nothing that like shows there's no hope, right!? I mean, no one's been hurt with this thing! Maybe the fey just wanted some amusement and now that it's gone on long enough, they'll give Kano back! And if not, then we fight them! You never know, we could stand a chance because it didn't work on us! We could like, be immune to their power~!

[It's a little far-fetched, but it's what comes to him.]

[Get him back...

Maybe they're immune, but that's not what matters. What matters is if other people got into contact with them, they can too. And even if it was Kano's wish, if it was what Kano asked for...

Yuya can't leave it like that, as if he doesn't have a life that's worth living. If it takes a contract, if he has to give something up then--so be it.

He lifts his head, sniffing as he wipes his eyes before he slides off his bed. He pulls his phone off the charger on his desk.]

They were on the network. I can try to send them a message--[He turns back around to Toki, closer now, and he stops. And stares.]

What happened to your eye?

[They're going to do this. Not cry about Kano any more.]

What are you going to-

[Oh shit. He reflexively brings his hand up to cover his eye at the mention of it.]

That's not important right now!

[Yuya blinks rapidly, then his brow furrows in concern. Toki's normally someone who shares too much. If he's hiding it, that means it's probably really severe. But also, Yuya knows he can't force Toki to talk about it.]

Okay but, if someone's hurting you...

[Please tell him ~~and he'll go fight them immediately~~.]

Edited 2019-04-26 05:25 (UTC)

[Part of him wants to tell Yuya, and part of him doesn't. For the same reason. He's afraid he'll do it again.]

It's not someone, it's- I-

[He drops his hand. Okay, he's doing this.]

Remember in Kano's closet, when I told you something was watching, but I didn't know what it was!? I've been seeing those eyes, that daemon or whatever it is, so many times! I see them when I try to sleep and I still feel it watching for hours after I have a vision about it! It was just- I had a bad day with that and I had a vision about it during the interview with the BBC and Adelaide was there she got them to turn off the camera before I started screaming about it, but they got like part of it, and that doesn't matter, that's not what- I freaked out after, like a lot and I told Adelaide everything because I thought the eyes were the daemon I made a contract with and she said she'd help and we went back here so I could write everything down!

[He stands up from his chair to lift his mattress and grab the notebook Yuya gave him. The other one, Screenplays About My Cat, falls to the floor in his haste. He shoves the vision notebook at Yuya, open to a page filled with slanted, panicked writing and scores of drawings of the same eye over and over.]

I couldn't stop drawing them! I still felt it! And then when we left, it wasn't even five minutes and I had another vision about the same eyes again and it was horrible and I could feel them like penetrating into my soul! And at the end of it, I was looking in a mirror, but my eye wasn't mine! It was the daemon's! It was dripping blood and staring at me and it wasn't mine! It wasn't mine! I had to get it out! I had to! That's all I was thinking about!

[He starts crying half-way through, a panicking choking in between sentences, but he can't stop. He needs to get it all out.]

I tried to take it out! I just- I just clawed at it and I couldn't stop! I couldn't stop! Adelaide was holding me down and I was kicking her and screaming at her to let me do it! I- I wanted it to stop watching me...

[Now that's he's said it, it's not as much of a relief as he thought it would be. There's just more panic over what Yuya will think.]

[Yuya leans back when the notebook is opened, reaching to gently lower it with his hand as Toki starts to give him the panicked explanation.

It's not like he hasn't been worried about Toki's whole mental state, but hurting himself is a new level of alarm.]

Hey. Hey. [Yuya moves to gently grip Toki's arm.] Remember, your visions aren't always that straight forward. Maybe... you should tell someone about them before you act on them. Like another seer. You don't have to try and figure it out alone.

I know! I do know, but it's hard to-

[Rationalize or think clearly or do anything.]

I was going to talk to Professor Jailbreak about them! I told Ekkehardt I would after the whole Valvatorez thing and then this all happened and I haven't yet, but I will! After we deal with Kano! It can wait!

[Ugh. Yuya's shoulders sink, because he's not sure if he wants to put this off.]

Toki, I don't want you to hurt yourself again. [He squeezes with his hand, briefly.] Look--I'll try and find that fey and find a way to bring Kano back. Okay? I will.

That's what Hieke's here for!

[It's a stupid thing to say, but he wants Yuya to think that he'd at least gone to the infirmary after, and not to Rex's van.]

I promise I'll talk to her about the visions! But I want to help with the fey too!

[He won't talk to Jail as promised. Toki's priorities will change when Maverick makes a contract with the Giraffe; and then he'll forget about it altogether.]

If you're going to Mr. Hieke, that means you've already done it! [It's not reassuring at all.]

I'm just sending a message to them right now. [Fine, he'll compromise even if he just wants to tell Toki to go get help.] And if I find out anything more I'll tell you, okay? We won't find anything if we just run around like last time...

[But he can fix it, which is not something to say here. Toki is fine with that compromise, because he was expecting Yuya to just tell him get help.]

Okay! I'll leave it to you~! I should take a shower...

[Wash the blood off, cry some more, that sort of thing. He heads for the bathroom, letting Yuya deal with the fey messaging.]

... Yeah. [Yuya draws his hand back to let him go, glancing down at his phone.]

I'm glad she stopped you. [He mutters, mostly to himself. Yuya knows Toki isn't his responsibility, but he's still relieved that someone was there, and could keep him from doing worse to himself.]

[Toki doesn't show any indication he heard Yuya's mutterings as he closes the bathroom door. He doesn't know how much damage he would have done without Adelaide there either, but if he goes any deeper into this conversation, he may accidentally disclose how Adelaide really stopped him, and that he can't do.]

[By the time he comes back, Yuya's sitting at his desk with his head against it and his phone lying beside him. He got an answer, at least. It wasn't quite the one he wanted, but it was a better answer than he was preparing himself for.]

He'll be back. [He starts dully when he hears Toki leave the bathroom.] In 'maybe' a week.

What!? Just like that!?

[It's hard to believe the fey just gave in to Yuya's demands.]

What did you say to them!?

04/19; 1:00am-ish / idk

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