persona_uni | (no subject)

(no subject)

After a few days, the Dark Hour seems... well, not normal, but consistent. Unless college students have suddenly taken to going to bed before the clock strikes twelve (unlikely), then every night the same thing occurs- just hopefully with a little more understanding and some access to weapons thanks to the Kirijo Group.

But tonight, something is different. Yes, electronics still don't work. Yes, the moon casts its strange green light over the entire campus. Yes, Shadows are still mucking around trying to destroy anything they can. But this evening, something has changed. One of the administrative offices, which has long been closed, looks... different. Mostly it's an aura to it, like something is wrong with it but nothing looks out of place. That is, unless you take a look at the front door, which has been replaced by a mirror. Or what seems to be a mirror, anyway. Standing in front of it will show your reflection, but with that same unsettling aura.

Touching it, however, will let you enter.

The glass seems to melt underneath any Persona user's fingers, letting them slip through it into the building. Once inside, they'll see that the normal boring office space has transformed into a sprawling dungeon, where Shadows are more prevalent and even more willing to attack. Hopefully they came prepared... and with any luck, they'll have the sense to make it out before the Dark Hour ends.

[ooc: Sorry for the delay! Please feel free to post up any entries of your own, whether dungeon crawling or just slice of life college stuff into the comm!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Alec follows his curiosity, because he can't think of any reason not to. Yes, it might be dangerous, and yes he might die, but that would be a bonus, not something to be sorry about, right?

Still he lingers in front of the mirror, hand pressed against it to watch the material melt and rematerialize it. Maybe he's more of a coward than he thought, or maybe there's something just fascinating about the material. (And maybe the latter is more because of his blown pupils, increased breath, and oh yeah, the acid he'd taken earlier in the evening than scientific curiosity)

When Alec doesn't answer Richard's knocks on his dormitory door ten minutes before midnight, Richard is only mildly concerned. Though he's been there every other night, Alec is nothing if not unpredictable. Despite his penchant for trying to put himself in harm's way, Richard has come to learn that harm has a strange way of avoiding Alec. He also loses track of time something terrible.

He searches the library near his dormitory first, then the classroom where Alec likes to study. (He should not know this much about him.)

Jogging from one building to the next, the Dark Hour falls. Richard's concern becomes more sharp, and his pace picks up. He notices a strange glow from one of the buildings, and then the unmistakably lanky shape of Alec.

"Alec," He's out of breath when he reaches his side, glancing around to make sure there are no Shadows in the immediate area. "What are you doing?" He stares at where Alec's hand is melting into the mirror.

Alec turns his attention to Richard, pressing his hand into the mirror. It feels like it gives.

“Is it real, do you think?” It’s not like this sort of thing can’t happen or seem to happen because of the acid alone, but Alec is fairly certain that Richard might be real, might be standing there. He pulls his hand back, stepping closer in order to reach it out to brush Richard’s cheek.

“Hey. I think you are.”

"As real as all of this," Richard says, gesturing at the surreal landscape around them. "Real enough to really hurt you." He frowns, watching the mirror with suspicion. He is so busily trying to determine what it is that he almost startles when Alec touches him, but catches himself at the last moment.

"Real? Of course I am." He talks to distract Alec while he looks him over for injuries, gently pulling Alec's hand away from his cheek. He is well, physically, but his hands are clammy and he blinks too irregularly. "Alec..." he breathes, "Did something happen?" Maybe an effect of one of the monsters.

Alec lifts his head to look into Richard’s eyes, trying to read them but ti’s too difficult to concentrate on something as mundane as that at the moment. Just like Richard’s care, it’s not the time for it.

“Something’s always happening. What kind of something?” His eyes flick away, smile on his lips.

"The kind of something that made you think it was a good idea to wander out into this." There's a tension in his voice that could easily be interpreted as anger, but lies closer to concern. He tries to guide Alec away from the

He's used to cryptic, unusual comments from Alec, but this is different. "Did one of the monsters - " Halfway through his sentence, he puts the pieces together. "You took something?"

Alec shakes his head, drawing his arm back to his side. He doesn’t want to be moved right now, not when there’s still so much that he needs to see and not when Richard is going to stand there and be judgemental and stop him from it.

“I don’t need you if you’re just going to judge me.” Alec laughs, light and a little mad. “Everything is better like this.” For now, at least.

"I'm not judging you, Alec." It's a small lie. He's more preoccupied with making sure Alec is alright than judging him, but he can't deny that he is upset with him for taking whatever he did, particularly under these circumstances. Then again, it shouldn't surprise him.

"I don't want you to get hurt, and if you don't have your wits about you, you will. Let's go back to your room." It's where they spend this hour normally.

“Why? So you can spend the time daydreaming about your girlfriend while you put up with me? So you can think about whatever it is that you’re going to plant next season? So you can pretend that I matter?” Alec turns back to Richard, hands on the man’s chest and shoving at him.

“You’ll understand if I’d rather decline.”

Alec isn't very strong, but Richard still stumbles back a step, caught off guard. "I'm not pretending," Richard replies, his voice strained and just a touch of heat finally coming into it. "I'm not your babysitter, no one's paying me to do this, I want to. If you didn't matter to me, I could walk away right now. Which I'm not going to do, for the record."

There's a fierce intensity in his eyes, daring Alec to challenge him. He knows that everything Alec is saying has been bubbling under the surface since they met, and the drugs have just loosened his tongue and sharpened it at the same time.

Alec steps in closer, following Richard, comfortable with being the aggressor for the moment. If it takes him a little ways further from the portal, that’s fine, he can go back to it once he’s gotten rid of Richard. Alec sees that intensity but it only makes him want to push more, only makes him think that he’s gotten closer to Richard’s breaking point, at least as far as Alec is concerned.

“I can’t think of why I would matter to you. There are better people to protect.” Alec doesn’t matter to himself, hasn’t ever mattered to anyone else, so it doesn’t make any sense.

"I know you don't understand," Richard concedes. There's no point arguing about Alec's feelings regarding himself. That's a much longer, much messier battle, and one Richard has no right to fight head on. "Do you ever accept things you don't understand?" Richard does, because it saves time and energy and understanding everything is impossible, but he's beginning to see that Alec doesn't have the same ease with the concept.

He doesn't move, even when Alec is nearly toe-to-toe with him. "And there are better protectors. You think I'm perfect?" Because he'll happily prove that wrong.

“I don’t understand because you’re not making any sense.” Alec’s voice is a snarl, and that combined with his proximity might allow him to serve as a threat, if Richard were anyone else, and if Alec were anything other than a too-skinny boy. Still, he raises his hand, as if he might lash out with it, before he allows it to lift, sharp nails scratching over his own chin and neck.

And then Alec is turning, making a mad dash towards the portal.

Richard, for all his frustration and confusion, doesn't hesitate to follow him. If Alec doesn't hurt himself, there's bound to be something past the portal that will hurt him for him.

When he appears on the other side of the portal, his assumption is confirmed. The place is crawling with shadows. He can't see Alec, so he calls out his name, a hand on the Evoker given to him. He hasn't used it yet, but he will if he has to.

Alec can hear Richard's voice, but he doesn't respond to it, mostly because he's too stubborn to admit that he's scared. It's not the shadows that do it so much as it is the dark spaces, the closed in walls.

Still, he doesn't need the rescue, refuses to admit he wants it when he knows he doesn't deserve it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(no subject)

cw: suicidal thoughts, drug usage

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

WOW i'm sorry bb i just noticed i totally didn't finish a sentence on the previous tag.....

it's fine!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject