Shiawase Tres

[isdf]

Who: Class of Shiawase and visitors
When: August 23-September 21
Where: Dormitory (Shiawase)
What: Meetings and visits . . . galore?
Warnings: Hallucinations, mentions of decapitation

Comments

cw suicidal ideation

[memori3s]

[ You cannot win a staring contest with something that has four eyes, four bright and glowing eyes now aimed directly at Mark's. ]

...I don't think it's killable.

[ Because if it was, he would have tried that back home.

And little does Minato know, even if it were defeated, the creature would resurrect itself so long as humanity wished for death, for some form of release from strife and struggle. ]

[titlecard]

[ He is not going to give up that easily, still staring. Come on, sooner or later he has to hallucinate this thing's heads exploding, right...

He narrows his eyes. ]

Everything's killable. Eventually.

[ He sounds so certain when he says it too... ]

[memori3s]

[ ...on second thought, Minato supposes Mark isn't wrong.

It would just be very, very, very difficult. So long as there was one person in the world who longed for the end, it would continue to exist. ]

If it was, I would have done that back home.

[ He sounds equally certain. The most he could do was seal it away... ]

[titlecard]

[ ...

He's going to cave first, then, dipping his head so he isn't looking into Erebus' eyes anymore. After a certain point it just gets too unnerving, and if Minato is so certain... The thing is following him around, he'd know best... ]

Koro. [ His voice is quiet. He is staring down at his hands, limp and at rest. ] You're not okay, are you.

[ Said with the cadence of someone else who is not okay — not in the physical sense, but in the mental; someone who comprehends that level of world-crushing guilt all too well. ]

[memori3s]

[ ...what? ]

I'm --

[ ...no, there's probably no need to pack all of that away from Mark, not when his tone seems to imply that he empathizes with his responsibilities. ]

It doesn't matter.

[ There's nothing that can be done if the worst has come to pass. All he can do is hope and pray that isn't the case. ]

...it wasn't real.

[ Probably. ]

[titlecard]

[ Squeezing his eyes shut. ]

But it might be. That's the problem. One day, it might be.

[ He just has to keep his eyes closed, maybe. Even glimpses out of his peripheral vision can be— He just has to keep his eyes closed, and only that way will it be safe to raise his head so Minato can see him head on.

(Not Mark. He doesn't want to see Minato right now; doesn't want to see any of them.) ]

I just... I get it. Maybe not exactly, but I get it.

[memori3s]

[ ...it's true, that is indeed the problem.

Even if Mark won't look at Minato right now, he offers the other teen a sheepish look. He gets it -- is that right? ]

You were a superhero back home. I think that's what you said.

[ Strange. Minato's never thought of himself to be anything like that. ]

[titlecard]

[ He nods, once, minutely. ]

Yeah. I thought it'd be glamorous, but it's— It's really not. Especially when — you know.

[ He swallows. He might be reaching here, but he's going to try anyway. ]

When you're the one who has the best chance at saving everyone, and you still can't.

[ He remembers that guilt from the earlier emotion share, buddy. It's hard to forget something like that, especially when you feel it from someone else. ]

[memori3s]

[ That comment sure reminds him of someone. What was Junpei doing right now?

Minato laces his fingers together as he listens, nodding in agreement with Mark's comment. The best chance at saving everyone... No, he'd been the only one who could do it because of the entity that had lived within him. ]

It's...

[ He sees what you're up to, Mark. ]

I'm just worried about everyone back home, that's all.

[titlecard]

[ When the protag gets protagged at.

A beat, and then he tries for a sympathetic smile. He probably looks weird as hell keeping his eyes shut like this, but there's also no chance in hell he opens them to see what horrors this place or his messed up psyche or both have seen fit to make him see on Minato, so they're staying shut. ]

Me too.

[ World-destroying events, right? ]

But I'm also worried about everyone here, so... can't win, huh.

[memori3s]

[ Honestly? Minato's seen weirder. ]

Yeah. ...guess not.

[ There's a beat of silence as he studies Mark with a serious expression. The teen's his elder, but something about him makes him feel... younger, inexperienced, as if he's yet to reach his full potential.

The gravity of it relents, the smile resurfacing again. Here's someone, then, who has plenty of time to grow. ]

But when you're home again, I think you can become someone who's able to do everything you want to do.

[ ... ]

We're nothing alike, Hiro. I'm no hero.

[titlecard]

[ He thinks he can hear a smile in Minato's voice, and it feels nice. Emboldens him, in a way; that if nothing else, he can be there for Minato. Mark can get better at this, can keep more people safe (never everybody — that's not realistic, he knows that, has learned that time and time again, but more). So that means Minato—

The wind gets taken out of his sails. Mark's smile falls, his brow knit in confusion from the words and whiplash of sentiment both. He opens his mouth and no sound comes out, because... what?

He'd thought—

He shakes his head. ]

I think that term's relative. You never really know, right?

[ C'mon, don't mess with him like this. ]