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[unseensmiter]

Futaba Sakura

alibaba

---

COURT

DAY

DORM

301

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christens your inbox with THIS [Action backdated to the March party because time isn't real]

[desireandhope]

[Yusuke does not trust this party. He doesn’t trust much of what the court rulers host, but this party in celebration of spring has him on high alert. Despite attempting to avoid the festivities, he’d been unable to stop one of the helpful fae on the floor from pinning a boutonnière to him and while annoying, Yusuke had to admit that the delicate ghost orchid pinned to his shirt was a gorgeous decoration to bear. And so he wanders the party, looking for anyone familiar to him, both already here and newly arrived.

He turns a corner, expecting to see more of the party with its soft morning light and floral decorations, but instead he finds himself standing in his home. No, no, his old home, the rundown shack that he and his fellow apprentices had lived in. He can feel the creak of rotted wood under his feet as he shifts his weight while trying to get his bearings. This is, was, his room. Why is he here? He turns and sees he is not alone. A woman sits in the corner as she delicately moves a brush against a canvas set in front of her. There is intense concentration in her eyes and it is a look that Yusuke finds terribly familiar. She is dressed in a simple white dress with black trim on the sleeves and a black band around the skirt. Her long black hair falls softly over her shoulder and the air leaves his lungs as he realizes the woman sitting in the chair is The Sayuri. His mother.

She looks up and Yusuke freezes. But her attention is not on him but on Madarame, who is standing near her and the canvas, smiling. They’re talking and the words are muffled, a soft white noise vaguely in the shape of language. He strains to understand what they are saying but then out of the corner of his eye he sees a toddler. The toddler sits on the floor with colored pencils and is concentrating just like his mother as he presses his red pencil deep into paper in a vivid circle. Yusuke’s throat is tight as he watches the boy go around and around until a loud thud is heard. Both present and past Yusuke turn their heads to see their mother laid out on the ground shaking violently. Madarame leaves in a rush and baby Yusuke stands, dropping his pencil as he toddles over to his mother.

"Mama?"

She doesn’t answer him- can’t answer him- as she chokes and gasps for air, her face pressed into the splintering old wooden floor. Present Yusuke’s hands are shaking as the boy, tenderly and slowly, slides his tiny hands under her trembling head. You’re supposed to protect the head arises unbidden in Yusuke’s mind, a certainty of fact that feels carved into his bones.

"Mama!?"

Loud footsteps come from behind them and present Yusuke sees Madarame return to stand in the doorway. He doesn’t move, his face bathed in shadow and merely watches the woman struggle and the tiny toddler trying to cradle her. As his mother falls quiet, Yusuke sees as his younger self look back to Madarame and speak in a wavering voice.

"Sensei… mama doesn’t look good. Please make her better?"

He thinks Madarame says something as he walks back into the room. Probably his name and some other nonsense as he takes the toddler’s hand and leads him away, the boy turning back to look at the prone body of his mother. The memory fades and Yusuke stumbles, collapsing against a hedge as he returns to the present. His breathing is shallow and skin paper white as he stares wide eyed into nothing.]

[unseensmiter]

[ Futaba's been trying to dodge getting a corsage slipped around her wrist for most of the night. Eventually, though, some particularly enterprising fae manages to get a green squid orchid over her hand on her way to the absolute outskirts of the garden party. She rolls her eyes until everything changes in an instant. She doesn't recognize the dilapidated house she's in, but she recognizes the woman on the ground almost instantly - after all, she's been hanging on LeBlanc's wall for longer than Futaba's been a Phantom Thief.

She watches carefully. She remembered seeing Madarame's picture all over the news sites after the Thieves took him down. Futaba puts two and two together pretty quickly.

The - The vision? The memory fades back to the garden party. Futaba watches as Yusuke falls into a hedge and quietly summons her Persona. Al Azif gently wraps some tentacles around Yusuke's arms and pulls him back upright as Futaba rushes over. She obviously doesn't know what to say, but- She can figure something out. Say something.

She jumps as she hears a car drive too fast right behind her, whirling around a second later to look at it. A car here was pretty notable, she figures. Instead of the garden party, she sees a busy intersection, herself - though a bit smaller - carrying a stack of papers (research, her brain supplies), and someone she thought she was done with after seeing her as a huge sphinx trying to kill her new friends: Her mother. ]

Oh no. [ It comes out barely louder than a whisper.

Slowly, carefully, deliberately, as if in a trance, Wakaba steps into traffic. Horns honk, breaks screech, and the younger Futaba screams and falls to her knees. The older one just winces and looks away from the scene as tears start falling unabashedly down her face. Not again...

The vision fades, and she's back at the garden party, eyes red, and Yusuke is- Right there, being held upright and out of the bushes by a single large tentacle, okay. ]

H-hey Inari. [ She's still crying, sniffling, but he looks. Just as fucked up, honestly, so she can- She can try to help. ]

[action]

[amurderofcrow]

[Here comes Akechi, knocking at your dorm door, Futaba. He knows you never leave the room so-]

[unseensmiter]

[ Futaba turns invisible on reflex and creeps over to the noise quietly. The door opens a crack; just Akechi. The door opens wider. She's halfway back to her bed when she turns visible again. She says nothing, but the scowl on her face isn't even trying to hide. ]

le texting

[coolcustomer]

I have a question for you, when you have a moment.

un: alibaba

[unseensmiter]

sure thing! what's up?

group text | june (1/3)

[unseensmiter]

i don't want to alarm anyone

(2/3)

[unseensmiter]

but i just woke up with ANTENNAE???????

(3/3)

[unseensmiter]

what do we DO?
should i cut them off???
i don't WANNA be a mothim!!

backdated to when mishima's poll was

[miraclewater]

Do you know who this guy is

[Attached is a screenshot taken from his video call showing Mishima.]

un: alibaba

[unseensmiter]

uuuuuuuuuuunfortunately

that's mishima, he's kinda a friend of ren's

[text] un: checkmate

[amurderofcrow]

Even though we are constantly surrounded by idiots, I've stayed my hand for months now. I think that deserves a reward.

[unseensmiter]

you're so right
you should TOTALLY be allowed to kill mishima
i'll back up this decision to ren, don't worry

text (un: pushrisette)

[idol_atry]

[It's been a few days since the Wild Hunt. Rise figures Futaba probably needed to conk out for a while, after whatever she went through; God knows she did. But at this point, hopefully her batteries are recharged enough for a text chat.]

possibly weird question. (or probably not that weird, since this was apparently not the first time everyone got dropped into heavy combat with no warning.)

do you think there's any way i could get kanzeon to
idk do ufo stuff?

i could've known a lot more a lot faster if i didn't have to *stand still for several minutes* while i was scanning.

[unseensmiter]

hm
yeah, i could see that being inconvenient

persona DO change sometimes
so it's gotta be possible, right?

i wonder if there's a way to
i dunno, this sounds stupid, but
yknow
MERGE them or something?
like a satellite dish that flies around like a flying saucer

text | un: number1phan

[ph4nb01]

the new poll isn't about you i promise

it's just the question everyone seems to be asking

please don't be mad or think i'm mad

i trust you, ftr

[unseensmiter]

nonono it's totally ok
seriously
honestly
it's a good question to ask
it's nice information for me to have honestly, to have an idea of how many people ARE mad

i appreciate it

...and i also appreciate that most people are on the "earning our trust back" train instead of the NEVER TRUSTING THOSE PEOPLE AGAIN one...

[action - two weeks after the event]

[amurderofcrow]

[It's a pretty pathetic sight to see.

Goro Akechi standing outside of Futaba's dorm room for at least thirty minutes, murmuring to himself and occasionally pacing back and forth, talking himself into knocking and then immediately talking himself out of it in the span of seconds.

But eventually the knock comes and he stands rigid at the door, waiting for her.]

[unseensmiter]

[ Futaba slowly comes to the door, opening it a crack and peering out with a big brown eye before she realizes it's just Akechi. ...Well. Realizes it's Akechi, at any rate. There's really nothing just about him. Pun intended. ]

Oh. Hey. [ She says after a couple quick blinks. After a brief moment of hesitation, though, she opens the door wider before she turns her back on him - showing off the new small, feathery wings coming out of her shoulder blades - and paces back over to her bed. There's a couple scars where he shot her, and she quickly grabs her army green jacket to cover them before Akechi can notice. He doesn't need the guilt, not when he did the right thing. ]

action! AT THE PARTY

[ph4nb01]

[Mishima's brain is so focused on getting Futaba alone in the photobooth, he doesnt even think about how she gets the full view of his sweater's open back down to the dimple of his tailbone when he pulls her by the hand through the crowd.

When the walls close around them he turns, a giddy little smile on his face]

Don't worry! We just have to like. Hug or kiss or whatever for seven minutes to get out.

You look so pretty. and hot.

[he takes her other hand hoping to mitigate the cold. Shes almost as tall as him in those boots. Those boots!]

Like wow. Like "s-step on me" hot.

[unseensmiter]

Oh yeah? [ With a wicked, toothy smile, Futaba gently places the toe of her boot atop Mishima's and gently - at first - begins to dig in, applying more and more pressure to where she's stepping on Mishima's shoe.

Don't threaten her with a good time. She's always kinda wanted to step on Mishima. ]

Christmas Gift

[vintagecaptain]

[ Either left outside the door or handed over in person is a handmade mug. Steve has themed each mug around the person as much as his developing pottery skills have let him. ]

Merry Christmas! Thanks for looking after Clint all this time. He's lucky to have you.

S. Rogers.

action

[brandingproblem]

after this

[Okay. So. This is fine. It's just handling these weird kids and their weird difficulties. Clint can handle kids. And being trusted by any of them other than Futaba, even if just because he is the adult she spends the most time around (and also being the one accused of putting thoughts in her head but like shh he forgives Akechi for that), at least gets him a certain distance. Given that they all seem to have an understandable if incredibly over the top distrust in anyone over the age of 18.

Surely that won't come back to bite all of them in the ass once they hit their 20's.

He knows Futaba huffed off with her bow, so it's a fair assumption she's either down at his range or at the fort, and she's kind of hard to miss.]

Rhetorical question time: you wanna talk about it? [Don't shoot him, it's rhetorical, so he knows the answer.]

[unseensmiter]

[ She whips her head to the side to glare in his direction and lets the arrow she had nocked fly down the archery range to hit the target - it's too high and aimed a little too far to the right, but she's got the spirit. ] No!

[ Futaba's attention returns to the targets and she shoots again - overcorrects, aims a bit too low, it lands in the dirt in front of the target. And again - once more overcorrects, and into the wall above and behind the target the arrow goes with a frustrated little growl. Honestly she hasn't been this sloppy with her shooting in a bit. ]

action

[copycatburglar]

[He knows he's probably worried Futaba a bit by disappearing, but to be fair, he had a very good reason.

A reason that gets him to sit in front of her door in the middle of the day.]

FUTAAAAABA. LET ME IN.

[unseensmiter]

Whaaaaaaaat~...? [ She whines as she opens up the door. On the floor there are a bunch of sticks and feathers strewn about, with an obvious circle in the middle of the carnage where Futaba had been sitting. ] Step in to my dorm room, said the spider to the fly.