[02] [open] nemesis identified

[usarinpa]

Who: Mizuki and YOU [open]
Where: The wilderness, a ways from Aldrip in an out-of-the-way little cave (Not Lorentia)
What: In which Mizuki finds out she's been alone all along.
Warnings: Spoilers for AI, IDK—will add if any become relevant.

[ There are thin tire tracks starting at the inn that head out and away from Aldrip today. Curious, isn't it? Were they there before? Have you even seen a motorbike here in Aldrip since you woke up here?

If you're keen to find out, you will follow a trail that is just long enough to make you wonder whether you should turn back. Keep with it, however, and you will find yourself at a small cave nestled in the mountains, the opening of which is surrounded by trees. ]


👁️ i. He was the Universe

[ Perhaps you'll see the bike first. It sticks out like a sore thumb. But walk a little further and inside the cave, there's Mizuki, asleep on the cave's dirt floor.

Her hair is messy with sleep. There is a hair piece that sticks out against her cyan locks, standing out almost as much as her bike does in the wilderness. In her hand is an empty, decorated box with a note attached that wouldn't look out of place in a trash can, as it is. Meager remnants of the few good things that have happened to her here, now that she can't go back.

A subtle, unpleasant odor lingers in the air, reminiscent of a wet dog or wild animal that's no longer there. Somewhere beside her sits her pipe, and at her waist, there is her holstered Evolver. ]

👁️ ii. Ought to Know

[ Alternatively, the trail is still going. Eventually, footprints start to appear in the dirt next to the tire track, suggesting that Mizuki has started walking. Catch up to her, you'll find that her back is to you and she is dragging her bike alongside her.

Why? ...Well, technology continues to be fickle, apparently.

Watch her for long enough and you'll see her stop and try to start it again. Instead, there's that all too familiar, insufferable buzz that makes her cover her ears. Her mouth opens, like she's groaning, but the noise that escapes, if there had been any, is easily swallowed up by the rustling of leaves and the buzzing of insects.

Once that passes, she can be seen pulling out a piece of parchment from her pocket—a map. ]

▶ ooc/wildcard

[ Due to trauma, Mizuki will be aphonic/unable to speak temporarily! Sorry about that. She will still be writing things in the dirt or on the back of her map, probably, and if I feel it's appropriate, I may give her back her voice midthread.

Enjoy the introduction of her shiny new bike, and please feel free to reach out via PM, on the Discord, or yammdere for plotting/ideas! Thank you! ]

Comments

[usarinpa]

[ Her hands are shaking, but more than worry, the Doctor will feel her anger. It is as much directed at that man as it is herself, for allowing such a farce to go on, and for a moment, she doesn't know what the Doctor is doing. Her natural instinct is to resist, but as his breaths slow as those thoughts grow louder, whatever strength she has is sapped.

Her own breath slows, very audibly. Even so, the Doctor will catch a glimpse of a dark, recognizable place—the inside of a carousel's center cylinder—and the image of a blue-haired woman with her left eye gauged out in a horrific, gory fashion. Interestingly, Mizuki's own left eye is missing as well at the moment...

She appears to calm, and her arm and wrist go limp in the Doctor's grasp. ]

Can't hurt me...

[twelfthsong]

[ The anger tastes like iron in his mouth. It's acrid and he recognizes it; it's the sort of anger that could corrode you from the inside out. He could realistically dispel the feeling, but that feels like steeping a toe over a line that he doesn't feel comfortable doing and certainly not without Mizuki's permission.

He notes the woman, the similarities between Mizuki and their missing eye. ]

Exactly. You're safe. [ It's followed by a brief pause. ] And worse comes to worse maybe you could just toss the bike at them. Not many people can handle having a bike thrown at them.

You said 'him' but who's that woman I just saw?

[usarinpa]

. . . [ It's not like he couldn't guess where she was if he really wanted to. She certainly doesn't feel safe, but the weight of her thoughts seem to lighten with his quip, almost as if she knows it was supposed to be funny. Maybe it any other situation, it would have gotten a laugh out of her.

For now, she doesn't imagine throwing a bike. Rather, she can see her younger form. She holds a pipe in her hand—one that is plain and metallic, but covered in blood. Her face is much the same, streaks of red trailing across her check, but then it all starts to become distorted, like she's trying not to think about it.

Her bike is too good for him. She only just got it back. But to answer his question... ]

Mom.

[ (He saw that?) ]

[twelfthsong]

[ The image of a young girl — a younger her he realizes — flickers through her mind and subsequently through his. The images aren't so fragmented that he can't draw a conclusion that something awful has happened to her to get her to this point. Everyone has a story. Mizuki is no different.

He is no longer the bleeding heart he used to be, willingly tearing his life and limb apart for the sake of every soul he encounters, the sight of a child covered in blood will never not draw something protective from him. ]

I should have guessed. There was some resemblance there.

[ The blue hair. Not the missing eye. ...Although the missing eye is undeniably a common thread between the two as well but surely pointing that out would be a 'DO NOT SAY THIS' on Clara's cue cards. ]

Who's the him? He's here in Aldrip with us?

[usarinpa]

[ Is there resemblance? Maybe...

By now, Mizuki thinks they couldn't be any more different, though perhaps the blue hair played a part in why they chose her to adopt from Aioen. In the end, it never mattered, because no matter how hard Mizuki tried, she never loved her. The mention of "him" does not seem to help either. She might even shiver, though whether it's out of fear or disgust is unclear.

She grips the handles on her bike, and her knuckles are shaking. Peeking out from beneath her hand is blood that hadn't quite had the chance to clean off. ]

Yeah. He's a true sinner.

[ Not like them. Though she supposes she still doesn't know if she's guilty of her "crime." Maybe she'll never find out. Maybe she'll die here on this strange-ass planet.

There are echoes of 'it's his fault, his fault,' before they're eventually replaced with 'my fault.' ]

[twelfthsong]

[ All of it, how her mother may not really be her "mother", the lack of love that his woman with a missing eye felt towards Mizuki, and the infamous "him" again ring through his mind. None of those things are what he focuses on however. He cannot solve an answer to leaving here yet, nor can make up for a mother's love, but he can at least focus on what he sees in front of him.

His eyes spot her shaking hands and there's another nudge of her emotions towards the calming sort. Tugging and morphing the emotions of others isn't something he tends to do on principle. It feels underhanded, a little icky to use one of the words that he'd heard Clara's students use, and frankly he doesn't care for it. But here he knows it's a suggestion meant to do more good than any ill intent or harm. ]

Do you want to talk about what happened?

[usarinpa]

[ "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

The voices echo in her head. First, it's the voice of a woman, soft and gentle in nature, and then it's the voice of a man. Ironically, he appears identical to the sinner, though the Doctor may or may not make that connection yet. He is rough around the edges, always tried to appear softer than he really was, which she never liked.

But somehow, he became family. ]

No. [ ...A beat. She winces. ] Yes. I don't know.

[ Luckily for the Doctor, she doesn't have to talk about it. He will get it in bits and pieces, like an old black and white film that plays in his mind, punctuated with static. It is muted, because perhaps she's chosen to black out all of his awful taunts, but he is clearly sneering. They are both engaged in some sort of confrontation. The very bike she is lugging appears as a backdrop, and on the ground, there are the remains of a vase shattered amongst wilted flowers.

And speaking of backdrops, the Doctor may recognize the location as Aldrip's inn. ]

[twelfthsong]

[ His brain has always been great at puzzles. Normally he relishes in them, but there isn't the same joy here that he would usually take in putting something like this together.

The black and white montage is quickly fitted together in his head. He hasn't seen the man that she's fought with in Aldrip, but he knows the inn well enough having spent more than enough in between time there. The shadowy figure behind her fear and anger suddenly had a face. It wasn't a Aldrip native but that seemed rather unlikely to him since not a hair or a feather seemed ruffled and out of place.

To say what he sees is concerning feels like a little bit of an understatement, something sour growing in the pit of his stomach. ]

The man I saw is someone you know from home, I suppose. But it feels like he wasn't like this before your arrived.

[usarinpa]

[ Before she arrived?

Mizuki doesn't know what he means by that. She perks up with curiousity, and she thinks of asking, but instead, she just grits her teeth. There's another brief scene where Mizuki can be seen, playfully offering a bouquet to him while wearing that accursed blue scarf before everything shatters like glass on a TV screen. ]

That's because he's not who he says he is.

[twelfthsong]

So he lied to you. Why?

[ Sometimes his bed side manner completely flies out the window. But there's pressing matters here and Mizuki, while she's still not speaking, is at least here and safe with him. ]

[usarinpa]

[ Because he's a shitty person.

Because something is literally wrong with him.

The Doctor is free to pick his poison. Mizuki herself can't really say for certain, and she certainly can't speak for Saito Sejima. Maybe she doesn't even want to know why—what does it matter? ]

To push my buttons, put me back in a bad place.

[twelfthsong]

Language.

[ The chide is nothing more than a reflex at this point. He doesn't quite mean anything by it and understandably, she isn't in a good place mentally.

There's another moment of silence before he speaks again. ]

I don't have the full details, but it's probably worth noting that if you came from a bad place you arrived at a better one. He doesn't have that power over you. You do.

[usarinpa]

[ 'Language'? Is he really gonna try to scold her right now...?

He's not her real dad, and if he was, he'd probably up and leave, too. Maybe that'd be good for him. She tries not to think about that, however, and everything he sees from Mizuki's mind will be washed in a red tint. Red like blood, red like anger. ]

I know. [ Frustration mounts. She tightens her fist. ] I know I do... But I don't really know if things are better here.

It's been weeks, and I still don't know how to get home. Home, where he's dead. Where he can't hurt anyone ever again.