Objection, as the younger of the two Wrights, yours should be number two.
[ But that's a deflection, and Maya herself notices it's a deflection, and he hates how he's been stuck around people long enough they're reading his tells. It's worrying. But dodging the subject means bringing up Maya's memory. Unacceptable.
...Which means he's staying the target. Great. ]
Yeah. Not important. It's just the ravings of a moron. With any luck, she got killed before my multiverse did.
Nah. You'll just be the really, really, really old fart Wright.
[ nice try, will. she is indeed wise to his bullshit, and drifts away from the jellyfish and a little closer to him. look into her big anime eyes, will...... ]
[ despite his harsh words (which, honestly, oof), maya knows it goes deeper than just this. ]
Are you worried your memories are in here? 'Cause we don't have to look at them if you don't want to.
[ as curious as she is. which.... she's extremely curious, thanks. ]
[ The first part just gets the silent eyeroll of 'God, have mercy, grant me the patience to not get into arguments over stupid petty nonsense'. Not that he can argue it anyway. Compared to her and Her-Wright, he's definitely the really really really old fart.
Insert a moment of silence. He's not worried. Even ignoring the fact Maya got blanket permission to do a Master Flex and get whatever deets she wants, to be worried means considering those memories as something Important. The problem is more that most of them are terrible, bordering nightmarish, and no one deserves that sprung on them. In addition, there's the whole Dad's Gonna Get Mad If You Talk About Classified Things, Also Friendship With Mortals Is Banned - but he's not here anymore. Silvanus is still a huge box in a corner to be unpacked and dealt with later, but it's been dealt with enough where there's no kneejerk reaction to avoid the entire subject like usual.
While this is all processed in a few seconds, the Contract filters it as the noise of a computer fan kicking into high gear. In addition to a bemused surprise, of the flavor that comes with realizing you could not give any less of a fuck about something you used to give every single fuck in the world about. It's a bit liberating. ]
There's a list of content warnings, but I don't mind. ...But only if we're taking turns.
[ good. he understands he can never win against maya. excellent. wright #2 is learning!! ]
[ it's a bit late to worry about friendship with mortals, though, will's already already collected a few. one of which is currently staring at him with her big anime eyes ]
[ honestly, this is more than she could have expected....... minus the part where he throws the gauntlet. that gives her pause. sure, it's only fair that they both share, but if she has no control over what's being shared, that might be an issue. ]
Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure I can handle it. [ .... ] Some of my memories are... not great, though [ understatement of the century ], and I don't wanna be a downer.
[ she does trust him, though. it's more that (like always), she's worried about burdening him. ]
[ This can be read as either they both have bad memories, or that her memories won't be bad, or that she's not allowed to escape the gauntlet throwing with half-baked dodges. So many options. She's given a vague wave towards the nearest coral Seat-Like Arrangement in a way that is neither calling her bluff or as a threat while still being both. ]
[ listen despite seacats being seacats, she's not wrong, she can handle it. it just might not be pretty. and might end up with maya holding his hand. he can deal. ]
... If you're sure.
[ but hm. doesn't look like she has a choice now. she's a little squirmy, but she does get to the seat...... being underwater makes this even weirder. ]
Um, so we just... grab one, I guess? Without hurting it or ourselves?
It didn't hurt. [ Please ignore the fact that he doesn't feel pain and thus, is effectively cheating to hell and back again.
Either way, Maya's left to her squirming. There's the ghost of a sensation at the back of her mind, passing over the worries of burden and anxiety of what to show. The only action taken in response is to grab the jellyfish near them. Only fair the one who makes the challenge goes first.
Downside. The colors the jellyfish gives change, go dark and muted, reflecting only what looks like a bottomless sea filled with stars, or crystals; the only sound being a faint breeze. Where to even start. That first memory isn't worth the time spent remembering it. The only good ones that immediately come to mind are with Lion, and that's blatantly cheating. Hm. ]
[ rude but true and deserved, thanks!!! she gives him a look for his argument (he knows what she means!!) and there he goes, grabbing a jellyfish. if he's not gentle with it, he'll get scolded, but she stares into the jellyfish as it swirls and changes colors..... wow. ]
Um.... Lion.
... If you're not too embarrassed.
[ that's half a joke, semi-teasing, and genuine in the way that if that's too personal she'll readily back off. ]
[ The jellyfish just kind of hangs out, not shocking anyone, but there is a hesitation. It's an easy enough question. He'll take that to mean as when they first met. But that is...
Oh boy. ]
...A bit embarrassed. Don't smack me for it.
[ Almost immediately, the vision of not-space disappears, which is the one positive towards having a perfect memory. Even moments like these come back as clear as reality. Maya is shown the inside of a church, or a chapel, same thing, but there's a strange overlay to the whole scene - which actually kind of hurts to focus on. There's a color to it, but she can't actually name it, and it leaves behind a sense of confusion and nonexistence, too many worlds compressed into too small a space. The narrative would like to point to the Neathbow's Irrigo if you want to get a deeper sense of what madness she's dealing with.
There's nothing notable aside from a coffin on display at the front - opened to reveal a single book and a sea of golden roses - and three people. Two people she immediately recognizes as friends and a third she does not. A girl with long blue hair, a black dress, and eyes devoid of all life. She is also an absolute shitlord, on account of she's literally standing in the coffin, crushing the roses in an action that's not even disrespect - it's more she doesn't care.
In fact, only Lion does.
"I-I don't know who you are, but please get down from there. That's a sacred altar-"
The girl doesn't move at Lion's demands. Alas, Lion is even ignored by her. What's worse is Will cuts them off immediately with a thumb jerked in their direction. The Lion in question doesn't even earn a glance. Dismissed as pointless.
"Lion, was it? Who is this person?"
Lion gets a look of immediate offense to this, but the girl cuts them off with a voice as dead as her eyes.
"You've already heard who."
"Is this your Piece?"
"No. It's a true and proper piece of this game board. One of the appearing characters."
"You're the Game Master. That means it's your Piece."
"I've just enclosed Beato's cat box in a larger cat box. Lion is one of the pieces who has a possibility of appearing inside it."
"Ah, I see. In other words, it's your Piece."
"...A piece I've placed would be the correct way to say it."
The conversation goes back and forth with only one brief aside for Will to verbally impale Lion a few times over their parentage, their status as an heir, who the hell even are you anyway, before they're written off immediately for the rest of it. After a certain point, Lion ends up doing that one deep sigh one gets when trying to put up with things they don't want to deal with, and stand there glaring into space for the rest.
Maya herself has witnessed this bad habit multiple times, even if she could never put a name to it. But for once, he actually acknowledges it. ]
Without looking at my records, I cannot count the amount of worlds I've been to. Lives I've seen. My job was to appear where there was a problem, fix it, then disappear without a trace. After that long, it's... not a person anymore. Just a piece to make my job harder, or a monster to be removed. I didn't meet Lion Ushiromiya. I was merely introduced to a character that had never appeared in the narrative. No better than text on a page.
[ There's even a moment where the girl refers to "this Lion" helping and when Lion complains, Will effectively dismisses them as a handicap rather than help. It's not even anger-inducing anymore. If anything, between that weird non-color overlay and the attitude of the two people involved, it's easy enough to fall into the trap that it's two people talking about the rules of a chess game in front of one of the pawns. ]
[ maya watches this umineko nonsense play out, eyes flicking between poor lion, the blue-haired girl, memory will, and will himself. the first thing she says when it's over -- ]
No wonder Lion pinches you. I'd pinch you too, if you talked about me like that.
[ so there's no physical smacking, but there is a little sass --- which he should be used to by now. the girl gives her a weird feeling --- a bad one -- and she the piece thing is semi-lost on her. she only understands a little, but probably the most unsettling thing about all of this is that both the girl and will act like it's just a game. ]
That's why you keep talking about pieces and game masters and stuff? [ just trying to make sense of all of this. she thought he called himself a piece, but apparently everything and everyone can be pieces. and: ]
Lemme guess.... Lion's the one that changed all that, right? Who made you realize it's people you're dealing with? 'Cause they're special.
[ and special to him. pearl would have a field day with that. ]
Not just you. I'm always punching myself in the face.
[ The second question gets a vague affirmative noise. Not all the way correct, but good enough to work with. ] Imagine if you had control of this memory, like it's a video game. You wouldn't consider the things on screen 'alive', right?
[ What's after is just a long blanket of silence. How to even answer that question. They were always people. He realized it one day, but trying to explain it to others hit a snag in the form of reputation. Too much time was spent as a monster, so being anything else is written off as senility. It shines even in the memory - it's always 'Wright'. Sometimes it's paired with Head Inquisitor, sometimes with Wizard-hunter, but it's always Wright. He is never once called by anything other than a title. Even by Lion.
Even now. Lucretia was just like Bernkastel. She didn't call for him. She called for Wright.
The jellyfish gets lightly shaken to erase the memory. The smug grin on the girl's face when it fades will haunt nightmares. ] ...Not quite. You can guess what my job was like. People become predictable. Certain lives lead to certain results. Nothin' but bad ends and sob stories because good people don't exist. If they did, I'd be out of a job. Yet there stood Lion. Here stands you. Both given the worst lives, yet somehow remain... good. You're both good. Lion became something more, but you are both equally special to me.
[ Somewhere in the past, Lion has probably ranted about how they cannot fathom how someone so short-sighted and blunt and stupid could also be so genuine and it's annoying!!! Maya has no also witnessed it and yeah. It's annoying. ]
Either way. Your turn. Show me this other Wright of yours.
[ she was partially teasing because she knows how he is, but he is so hard on himself....... she puts a hand on his arm ]
.... I think I understand. I can't imagine how it must be for you, having lived so long and seen so many people, the absolute worst of people.... it's kind of really amazing that you're still as hopeful as you are. And even though you have every reason to be totally jaded, you still help people out as much as you can, and you still have the strength to have faith. You're the one that's really good, not me.
[ gosh will she's just a normal person stop embarassing her like this. her cheeks are red, even. ]
.... And you're wrong about my life being the worst, 'cause actually? I'm really lucky to have you.
[ he's also lucky to have an emotional connection to her, because actually vocalizing that someone is special to her as directly as he did can be really hard, but he can feel the 'you're really special to me too' accompanying that last sentence from her side of the connection. she may tease it off later, but there's no denying the feeling. it's a lot of warmth. ]
[ more importantly, will has now seen maya's more genuine and realest smile. congratulations. it's just as soft and warm as how she's feeling right now. ]
Okay... I, um, I don't have a very good handle on this jellyfish stuff, but I'll do my best.
[ now it's time for her to put her hand on it and concentrate on a wright that's even more of a dork than he is ]
[ There's a snap reaction of 'what, no, that's dumb, stop being dumb' and she has a moment to prepare for his usual MO of cutting off any line of questioning that gets too close to accepting people in his life. It's beyond the Piece thing. After everything he's done, to be called the good one or special is just wrong. That kind of connection is entirely undeserved and the whole emotional connection gets beheaded for even attempting it.
Or. Not quite. There's a hesitation. Maya has dealt with him having to pull memories out from storage. It's akin to hearing a dying fax machine get stuck on a connection loop. Meanwhile anything in the past week, or things important enough to be a permanent post-it note in someone's mind, simply appear without any hassle or stress and tend to feedback over the Contract with clarity. She also knows 90% of said important things are related to Lion, because he's a predictable sap. There's no printer sound, but the voice is unmistakably hers.
I'm happy you're both alive, you know. I hope one day you two can come to feel the same way. ]
...Still don't see it. [ And she gets a half-second to squawk indignantly over his apathy-scented negativity, but it gets cut off when the arm she's not holding moves to rest a hand on top of hers in reassurance. He can't make a smile to match hers - it's some halfway broken thing, trying to be genuine and realest but only landing at 'genuine'. ] But I'm trying. Just gotta' believe you in the meantime. Glad I helped you out somehow.
[ Look, now she doesn't have to tease him if he threatens to expose her kokoros: mutual blackmail attained. With a side note here that in the faintest corner of the Contract, she can feel her own face get archived somewhere Vital. If only everyone in the world could smile like that. Maybe there'd be fewer assholes. Use it for motivation.
There's still the visceral need to punch someone in exchange for the moment of weakness, but she's not an angel and those cultural norms are kind of dumb in retrospect. Her hand is removed and placed next to the other one on the memoryfish. Treat it like training subordinates' reconstruction of game boards. The voice Maya gets is Sure in ways that don't make sense. ]
Close your eyes. Relax. Don't think too hard. Tell me about how you met. What day was it? What was the weather like? Were there any scents - coffee, flowers, cleaning supplies? How does his voice sound? Find a detail and focus on it.
[ All little details that have no purpose, but together help paint a whole picture. ]
[ she expected argument, so honestly..... this is more than she could have ever hoped for. when he puts his hand on top of hers, and parrots her own voice back at her, she threads her fingers through his and gives it a little squeeze. ]
[ rather than squawk indignantly, her voice softens. ]
Don't worry..... I'll believe in you ten times as hard, until you can see it. Until you can be happy, too.
[ because she'll never change her mind on that. something else might be changing, though. buried very deep down, deeper than even will can reach, deeper than even maya can reach, sometimes, there's been a steady fear and sense of hopelessness steadily growing with every mission, every death and every horrible thing that happens. right now, though, it's not there in any capacity. for the first time, looking at will's more genuine attempt at a smile, sitting underwater with the jellyfish like this with their hands intertwined, maya actually feels like things might be okay. in this one moment, no part of her is scared. ]
[ and that means more to her than she'll ever be able to express, even after it's over. ]
How we met...?
[ oh boy. she wanted to give him a happier memory to look at, but..... maybe this will help him understand what's so special about nick. ]
[ she takes a deep breath, and follows his advice. but, uh, a dark office is coming into focus --- with mia's corpse's laid out under the window, and maya sobbing over it, just seconds too late to stop it. ]
[ "Sis....." she sobs, just as a mysterious, unknown man enters the room and gasps. the maya in the jellyfish can't make out what he's saying, but overcome by terror that he might be the killer or something else -- she straight up faints. ]
[ This thread is way too wholesome and it's giving the narration diabetic shock. Don't do that. :( ]
Until both of us can. You deserve it too.
[ And it sounds stupid and impossible, heaven knows he's been thinking it since Ever, but on one hand - maya you asshole you are not dragging him through positivity and then not suffering the same hell yourself. On the other, she actually does cave too easily about things. Probably only visible mark the world has left on her. Feels too much like a burden when she really shouldn't. So? Two way street. Maybe someday she'll believe the same thing she's preaching. And if not, he can shout about it until it sinks in or his vocal chords snap. Whichever happens first. Hopefully the former.
Normally around here is when the recoil of Time To Pretend Feelings Didn't Happen would occur, but it doesn't. It's just the comfortable silence of someone watching a replay of one of the most traumatizing momements of your life. ...Maybe slightly uncomfortable. On the positive side, there's no shock or misplaced empathy at this display of a girl mourning her sister. It's not even bemusement or non-surprise that filters through. Only the casual observation of 'yeah, this seems legit, must've been a friday, messed-up missions always came in on fridays to con people into working weekends'.
This is immediately followed with the realization that that's a bad thing.
Oops. ]
...Hell of a first impression, huh. Guessin' you were the main suspect?
[ she is happy to be alive, she always has been, but she's never quite been able to feel like she particularly deserves it. instead, she's focused on "earning" her life by helping out and being "useful" at every given opportunity. and never focusing on her feelings. it's fine. ]
[ it's hard for her to feel like she truly deserves to be alive. it still is. but this.... will.... thanks to him, it's a tiny, tiny modicum easier. he'll have to yell a lot to get it to progress more than that, though. ]
[ yeah, that is a bad thing, thanks, will, but she's relieved he isn't reacting worse. neither of them grasp just how weird it is for him to react that way, in this one instance ]
... Yeah, pretty much.
[ it goes by quicker: phoenix, introducing himself to a traumatized maya (once she's conscious) who doesn't want to talk to him, trying to soothe her by assuring her he works there, which gets her to introduce herself to him. then, he ill-advisedly shows her a receipt with the word 'maya' written in blood, which, obviously, upsets her. ]
[ detective gumshoe sweeps in, finds out that her name is maya, and arrests her for murder on the spot. she's carted away instantly. ]
[ (will was absolutely right, to no one's surprise) ]
[ Hey, despite everyone thinking problems can be fixed with a thanos snap, it doesn't work that way in reality. It's small steps that feel like nothing, unless someone else is nearby to help you with perspective. Even a tiny modicum easier is a win. Progress! Progress is good.
Also if neither of them grasp how weird something is, that means it's not weird. #logic.
Though he almost wishes it was weird. This short play isn't even shocking. It's just another day on assignment, feeling like home in all the worst ways. The current head investigator on duty getting a confirmation of something Damning - whether by accident or on purpose - then the nearest assistant goes WHOO PROOF OF MURDER and drags them off to be tortured. There's an expression here of 'moments like this, I understand why humans take up alcoholism' but without enough disgust to actually start up the bad habit.
[ the scene is now maya in jail. phoenix is her only visitors, and though he offers to defend her, she refuses him. her sister told her that he's a rookie and that he still needs time, and part of maya thinks that he thinks she did it. "Even you, you looked at me like I had done it!" ]
[ everyone else does, that's for sure. she instead gives him the contact info of a famous lawyer who mia had told her to call if she was ever in trouble. phoenix disappears. ]
[ when he reappears, he's clearly lying to her about the guy because he doesn't want to say what really happened. "What really happened?" memory maya asks, and phoenix just gulps because he doesn't want to say it, "You don't mean.... he refused to help?" ]
[ the expression on phoenix's face is enough for maya to tell she's right. ]
[ "I see. So I've been abandoned, then. " ]
[ her expression is crushed, broken, but somehow, not surprise. phoenix stays: he asks her about herself. she tells him that e.s.p runs in her blood, and the women of the fey family have been mediums for generations. she tells him that mia was all she had in the world, that her father died when she was very young and her mother has been missing from around the same time. she knows of a man, called 'White', who ruined her mother -- he found out about a case where they used a spirit medium to try to solve an unsolvable case, but something went wrong. the man her mother had helped implicate was innocent, and details of the investigation were leaked to this man..... who made her a laughingstock. since then, she fled the village and hasn't been seen since. how mia left several years after that, and maya has been living by herself since. the implications here are pretty yikes. ]
[ she tells all this to phoenix, as her time to find a defender is almost up. then, he makes a decision. ]
[ "I've made up my mind. I'm going to defend you whether you want me to or not!" ]
[ maya clearly has no idea what to do with this. she stares at him, uncomprehendingly. "Why?" ]
[ "I won't abandon you, Maya. You can count on me. " ]
[ maya in the memory sniffles, moved by his kindness, and then smiles. actual maya nudges will and points at the jellyfish like he's not already watching it. ]
[ "One last question," says phoenix, "You are innocent, aren't you?" ]
[ "Yes!" responds memory maya, finally showing her usual exuberance, "And I trust you! So you trust me too, okay?" ]
[ To Maya, the connection is dead silent, processing power aimed elsewhere, recording and filing details, notes, references, in a way she's never witnessed. There was never anything important enough to justify it. It also probably helps that it's untranslatable, both from how it's managed compared to humans and also because it's simply too fast.
It also means she doesn't get the thoughts behind it. Both from the short glimpse of a memory from before with that woman scolding her, and the memory's testimony now, there is no question on where she picked up her fear of abandonment. Her blinding need to be useful - because doing so is proof that she has value, and thus less likely to be abandoned. There's a lot of Yikes here. Especially the glimpses of how she's been raised. Extremely yikes.
Yet, here stands this moron with stupid hair, who she shoved away once and who came back anyway. With none of the pity that would come with hearing a sob story. It references against how Similar it is to home. No one would have taken her side. Sure, she's obviously innocent, there's no motive to Maya killing her own sister, but no one cares about the heart anymore. To take her case is suicide. To believe her case is sheer ignorance. Yet, all he needed to hear was her say she was innocent. And he went for it. Following the usual narrative tropes that come from this situation, and the fact Maya constantly sings his praises and, he most likely proved her innocent.
Normally, the verdict would be kept internal to gather dust in the archives for eternity. But this is a Bonding Moment, and this entire mission has just been metaphorically pushing an envelope further and further, seeing how far it gets before the memories of fear become actual fear. This kind of admittance doesn't even rate. ]
What a well-meaning idiot. Everyone thinks he's a rookie, so he picks up an impossible case? Because it's right? I'd kill for a successor like him.
[ it goes deeper than he knows, but yeah. maya herself doesn't even seem to realize the implications the memory's giving on how she was raised, because it's normalized to her, and that's even more yikes. ]
[ the memory fades out, and maya's left with a ridiculously fond look on her face. don't tell nick if he ever does show, will, she'd never live it down. ]
Told ya.
[ the memories of phoenix are bittersweet because she really, really, misses him, so it's just so nice to hear his voice and see his face -- even if it is a memory being displayed through a jellyfish. ]
He's always like that. Our cases are always impossible, we have to fight through loads of lying witnesses and evidence and jerk prosecutors... He always looks like he doesn't know what he's doing, he does some really dumb, crazy things...... he gets desperate, we're always flying by the seat of our pants, but.... he always comes through. That's why he's my partner.... he saved me, and sis asked me to take care of him, so..... I help him.
[ because she wants to save people, too. she loves working with him, being able to prove innocents innocent. ]
He is an idiot, but he can be pretty smart, too. .... But don't tell him I said that, 'cause it would go straight to his head.
So gonna tell him. [ There is actually enough inflection here to tell it's a joke. Your secret is safe with the murderbird, Maya. ] Still can't let 'im have the title without a fight. Part of the Rules.
[ The more she talks about him, the more it sounds like this idiot with the terrible hair and ridiculous parrot-questioning antics sounds more worthy of his Title than anyone else he's ever known. It's a last name, not a Title, so it's really just rolling with Maya's jokes than anything else, but it's a shame. At least he has Lion. Even if it's bec
Let's not think about that.
The worst part is the little things. From her words to her expression to even little things (and here he thought the phoenix's name was a bad pun), it must be killing her. With each month that goes by with more people turning up and getting their friends from home, Maya received her sister but not her Sun. And then you have certain idiots running around saying that their worlds aren't coming back. Yeah, it's fine to be skeptical, but to say it aloud is like saying to give up hope. Even now, he can hear some galaxy brain asshole going on about present versus past tense. Blah. ]
Oh, yeah? I have pleeeenty of embarassing things I could tell Lion, too. [ but it's just as obviously a joke. she giggles at him. ] Fight him all you want, but I'm warning you.... he loves making terrible puns with his name.
[ but yeah. it aches every day maya is without him, both because she misses him and because every day she's without him is another one where she has to tell herself to be hopeful that he's not really dead, that she didn't trade one dead family member for two. ]
... He is. I'm lucky to have him, too.
[ this is gonna be hilarious later when will sees him being a dick. but for now, she nudges him gently. ]
You have no evidence. [ Read: no seriously even as a joke lion would never let him live it down. Also yeah, feel free to keep the above compliments on a backburner for when the memory of Nick being a jerk comes up and see how quickly they get redacted. Then when he shows up, he can get punched right in the face.
At the nudging there's still that moment of 'god what do i even show it's all terrible' quickly sliding off into finding excuses to run away from the whole thing. That is totally okay to do. Except it's not and he's being a coward. Hhhhhh- ]
Yeah yeah. Keep making demands. Nothing will play otherwise.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
I don't know, don't underestimate how bad the Wright jokes are. He might be your match, Wright #2.
[ the dumb stuff out of the way, maya pauses. she did notice that stupid thing he does. ]
Are you okay? That was your memory, right?
[ the inquisitor and emotional reaction kind of fave it away, so there's no sense in him denying it. ]
no subject
[ But that's a deflection, and Maya herself notices it's a deflection, and he hates how he's been stuck around people long enough they're reading his tells. It's worrying. But dodging the subject means bringing up Maya's memory. Unacceptable.
...Which means he's staying the target. Great. ]
Yeah. Not important. It's just the ravings of a moron. With any luck, she got killed before my multiverse did.
[ Harsh. ]
no subject
[ nice try, will. she is indeed wise to his bullshit, and drifts away from the jellyfish and a little closer to him. look into her big anime eyes, will...... ]
[ despite his harsh words (which, honestly, oof), maya knows it goes deeper than just this. ]
Are you worried your memories are in here? 'Cause we don't have to look at them if you don't want to.
[ as curious as she is. which.... she's extremely curious, thanks. ]
no subject
Insert a moment of silence. He's not worried. Even ignoring the fact Maya got blanket permission to do a Master Flex and get whatever deets she wants, to be worried means considering those memories as something Important. The problem is more that most of them are terrible, bordering nightmarish, and no one deserves that sprung on them. In addition, there's the whole Dad's Gonna Get Mad If You Talk About Classified Things, Also Friendship With Mortals Is Banned - but he's not here anymore. Silvanus is still a huge box in a corner to be unpacked and dealt with later, but it's been dealt with enough where there's no kneejerk reaction to avoid the entire subject like usual.
While this is all processed in a few seconds, the Contract filters it as the noise of a computer fan kicking into high gear. In addition to a bemused surprise, of the flavor that comes with realizing you could not give any less of a fuck about something you used to give every single fuck in the world about. It's a bit liberating. ]
There's a list of content warnings, but I don't mind. ...But only if we're taking turns.
[ Gauntlet thrown. ]
no subject
[ it's a bit late to worry about friendship with mortals, though, will's already already collected a few. one of which is currently staring at him with her big anime eyes ]
[ honestly, this is more than she could have expected....... minus the part where he throws the gauntlet. that gives her pause. sure, it's only fair that they both share, but if she has no control over what's being shared, that might be an issue. ]
Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure I can handle it. [ .... ] Some of my memories are... not great, though [ understatement of the century ], and I don't wanna be a downer.
[ she does trust him, though. it's more that (like always), she's worried about burdening him. ]
no subject
Then I guess we'll both be downers.
[ This can be read as either they both have bad memories, or that her memories won't be bad, or that she's not allowed to escape the gauntlet throwing with half-baked dodges. So many options. She's given a vague wave towards the nearest coral Seat-Like Arrangement in a way that is neither calling her bluff or as a threat while still being both. ]
no subject
... If you're sure.
[ but hm. doesn't look like she has a choice now. she's a little squirmy, but she does get to the seat...... being underwater makes this even weirder. ]
Um, so we just... grab one, I guess? Without hurting it or ourselves?
[ gentle callout ]
no subject
It didn't hurt. [ Please ignore the fact that he doesn't feel pain and thus, is effectively cheating to hell and back again.
Either way, Maya's left to her squirming. There's the ghost of a sensation at the back of her mind, passing over the worries of burden and anxiety of what to show. The only action taken in response is to grab the jellyfish near them. Only fair the one who makes the challenge goes first.
Downside. The colors the jellyfish gives change, go dark and muted, reflecting only what looks like a bottomless sea filled with stars, or crystals; the only sound being a faint breeze. Where to even start. That first memory isn't worth the time spent remembering it. The only good ones that immediately come to mind are with Lion, and that's blatantly cheating. Hm. ]
Pick a starter prompt.
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Um.... Lion.
... If you're not too embarrassed.
[ that's half a joke, semi-teasing, and genuine in the way that if that's too personal she'll readily back off. ]
blah blah spoilers
Oh boy. ]
...A bit embarrassed. Don't smack me for it.
[ Almost immediately, the vision of not-space disappears, which is the one positive towards having a perfect memory. Even moments like these come back as clear as reality. Maya is shown the inside of a church, or a chapel, same thing, but there's a strange overlay to the whole scene - which actually kind of hurts to focus on. There's a color to it, but she can't actually name it, and it leaves behind a sense of confusion and nonexistence, too many worlds compressed into too small a space. The narrative would like to point to the Neathbow's Irrigo if you want to get a deeper sense of what madness she's dealing with.
There's nothing notable aside from a coffin on display at the front - opened to reveal a single book and a sea of golden roses - and three people. Two people she immediately recognizes as friends and a third she does not. A girl with long blue hair, a black dress, and eyes devoid of all life. She is also an absolute shitlord, on account of she's literally standing in the coffin, crushing the roses in an action that's not even disrespect - it's more she doesn't care.
In fact, only Lion does.
"I-I don't know who you are, but please get down from there. That's a sacred altar-"
The girl doesn't move at Lion's demands. Alas, Lion is even ignored by her. What's worse is Will cuts them off immediately with a thumb jerked in their direction. The Lion in question doesn't even earn a glance. Dismissed as pointless.
"Lion, was it? Who is this person?"
Lion gets a look of immediate offense to this, but the girl cuts them off with a voice as dead as her eyes.
"You've already heard who."
"Is this your Piece?"
"No. It's a true and proper piece of this game board. One of the appearing characters."
"You're the Game Master. That means it's your Piece."
"I've just enclosed Beato's cat box in a larger cat box. Lion is one of the pieces who has a possibility of appearing inside it."
"Ah, I see. In other words, it's your Piece."
"...A piece I've placed would be the correct way to say it."
The conversation goes back and forth with only one brief aside for Will to verbally impale Lion a few times over their parentage, their status as an heir, who the hell even are you anyway, before they're written off immediately for the rest of it. After a certain point, Lion ends up doing that one deep sigh one gets when trying to put up with things they don't want to deal with, and stand there glaring into space for the rest.
Maya herself has witnessed this bad habit multiple times, even if she could never put a name to it. But for once, he actually acknowledges it. ]
Without looking at my records, I cannot count the amount of worlds I've been to. Lives I've seen. My job was to appear where there was a problem, fix it, then disappear without a trace. After that long, it's... not a person anymore. Just a piece to make my job harder, or a monster to be removed. I didn't meet Lion Ushiromiya. I was merely introduced to a character that had never appeared in the narrative. No better than text on a page.
[ There's even a moment where the girl refers to "this Lion" helping and when Lion complains, Will effectively dismisses them as a handicap rather than help. It's not even anger-inducing anymore. If anything, between that weird non-color overlay and the attitude of the two people involved, it's easy enough to fall into the trap that it's two people talking about the rules of a chess game in front of one of the pawns. ]
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No wonder Lion pinches you. I'd pinch you too, if you talked about me like that.
[ so there's no physical smacking, but there is a little sass --- which he should be used to by now. the girl gives her a weird feeling --- a bad one -- and she the piece thing is semi-lost on her. she only understands a little, but probably the most unsettling thing about all of this is that both the girl and will act like it's just a game. ]
That's why you keep talking about pieces and game masters and stuff? [ just trying to make sense of all of this. she thought he called himself a piece, but apparently everything and everyone can be pieces. and: ]
Lemme guess.... Lion's the one that changed all that, right? Who made you realize it's people you're dealing with? 'Cause they're special.
[ and special to him. pearl would have a field day with that. ]
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[ The second question gets a vague affirmative noise. Not all the way correct, but good enough to work with. ] Imagine if you had control of this memory, like it's a video game. You wouldn't consider the things on screen 'alive', right?
[ What's after is just a long blanket of silence. How to even answer that question. They were always people. He realized it one day, but trying to explain it to others hit a snag in the form of reputation. Too much time was spent as a monster, so being anything else is written off as senility. It shines even in the memory - it's always 'Wright'. Sometimes it's paired with Head Inquisitor, sometimes with Wizard-hunter, but it's always Wright. He is never once called by anything other than a title. Even by Lion.
Even now. Lucretia was just like Bernkastel. She didn't call for him. She called for Wright.
The jellyfish gets lightly shaken to erase the memory. The smug grin on the girl's face when it fades will haunt nightmares. ] ...Not quite. You can guess what my job was like. People become predictable. Certain lives lead to certain results. Nothin' but bad ends and sob stories because good people don't exist. If they did, I'd be out of a job. Yet there stood Lion. Here stands you. Both given the worst lives, yet somehow remain... good. You're both good. Lion became something more, but you are both equally special to me.
[ Somewhere in the past, Lion has probably ranted about how they cannot fathom how someone so short-sighted and blunt and stupid could also be so genuine and it's annoying!!! Maya has no also witnessed it and yeah. It's annoying. ]
Either way. Your turn. Show me this other Wright of yours.
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.... I think I understand. I can't imagine how it must be for you, having lived so long and seen so many people, the absolute worst of people.... it's kind of really amazing that you're still as hopeful as you are. And even though you have every reason to be totally jaded, you still help people out as much as you can, and you still have the strength to have faith. You're the one that's really good, not me.
[ gosh will she's just a normal person stop embarassing her like this. her cheeks are red, even. ]
.... And you're wrong about my life being the worst, 'cause actually? I'm really lucky to have you.
[ he's also lucky to have an emotional connection to her, because actually vocalizing that someone is special to her as directly as he did can be really hard, but he can feel the 'you're really special to me too' accompanying that last sentence from her side of the connection. she may tease it off later, but there's no denying the feeling. it's a lot of warmth. ]
[ more importantly, will has now seen maya's more genuine and realest smile. congratulations. it's just as soft and warm as how she's feeling right now. ]
Okay... I, um, I don't have a very good handle on this jellyfish stuff, but I'll do my best.
[ now it's time for her to put her hand on it and concentrate on a wright that's even more of a dork than he is ]
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Or. Not quite. There's a hesitation. Maya has dealt with him having to pull memories out from storage. It's akin to hearing a dying fax machine get stuck on a connection loop. Meanwhile anything in the past week, or things important enough to be a permanent post-it note in someone's mind, simply appear without any hassle or stress and tend to feedback over the Contract with clarity. She also knows 90% of said important things are related to Lion, because he's a predictable sap. There's no printer sound, but the voice is unmistakably hers.
I'm happy you're both alive, you know. I hope one day you two can come to feel the same way. ]
...Still don't see it. [ And she gets a half-second to squawk indignantly over his apathy-scented negativity, but it gets cut off when the arm she's not holding moves to rest a hand on top of hers in reassurance. He can't make a smile to match hers - it's some halfway broken thing, trying to be genuine and realest but only landing at 'genuine'. ] But I'm trying. Just gotta' believe you in the meantime. Glad I helped you out somehow.
[ Look, now she doesn't have to tease him if he threatens to expose her kokoros: mutual blackmail attained. With a side note here that in the faintest corner of the Contract, she can feel her own face get archived somewhere Vital. If only everyone in the world could smile like that. Maybe there'd be fewer assholes. Use it for motivation.
There's still the visceral need to punch someone in exchange for the moment of weakness, but she's not an angel and those cultural norms are kind of dumb in retrospect. Her hand is removed and placed next to the other one on the memoryfish. Treat it like training subordinates' reconstruction of game boards. The voice Maya gets is Sure in ways that don't make sense. ]
Close your eyes. Relax. Don't think too hard. Tell me about how you met. What day was it? What was the weather like? Were there any scents - coffee, flowers, cleaning supplies? How does his voice sound? Find a detail and focus on it.
[ All little details that have no purpose, but together help paint a whole picture. ]
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[ rather than squawk indignantly, her voice softens. ]
Don't worry..... I'll believe in you ten times as hard, until you can see it. Until you can be happy, too.
[ because she'll never change her mind on that. something else might be changing, though. buried very deep down, deeper than even will can reach, deeper than even maya can reach, sometimes, there's been a steady fear and sense of hopelessness steadily growing with every mission, every death and every horrible thing that happens. right now, though, it's not there in any capacity. for the first time, looking at will's more genuine attempt at a smile, sitting underwater with the jellyfish like this with their hands intertwined, maya actually feels like things might be okay. in this one moment, no part of her is scared. ]
[ and that means more to her than she'll ever be able to express, even after it's over. ]
How we met...?
[ oh boy. she wanted to give him a happier memory to look at, but..... maybe this will help him understand what's so special about nick. ]
[ she takes a deep breath, and follows his advice. but, uh, a dark office is coming into focus --- with mia's corpse's laid out under the window, and maya sobbing over it, just seconds too late to stop it. ]
[ "Sis....." she sobs, just as a mysterious, unknown man enters the room and gasps. the maya in the jellyfish can't make out what he's saying, but overcome by terror that he might be the killer or something else -- she straight up faints. ]
[ that's a good first impression. ]
It's... not all doom and gloom, I promise.
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Until both of us can. You deserve it too.
[ And it sounds stupid and impossible, heaven knows he's been thinking it since Ever, but on one hand - maya you asshole you are not dragging him through positivity and then not suffering the same hell yourself. On the other, she actually does cave too easily about things. Probably only visible mark the world has left on her. Feels too much like a burden when she really shouldn't. So? Two way street. Maybe someday she'll believe the same thing she's preaching. And if not, he can shout about it until it sinks in or his vocal chords snap. Whichever happens first. Hopefully the former.
Normally around here is when the recoil of Time To Pretend Feelings Didn't Happen would occur, but it doesn't. It's just the comfortable silence of someone watching a replay of one of the most traumatizing momements of your life. ...Maybe slightly uncomfortable. On the positive side, there's no shock or misplaced empathy at this display of a girl mourning her sister. It's not even bemusement or non-surprise that filters through. Only the casual observation of 'yeah, this seems legit, must've been a friday, messed-up missions always came in on fridays to con people into working weekends'.
This is immediately followed with the realization that that's a bad thing.
Oops. ]
...Hell of a first impression, huh. Guessin' you were the main suspect?
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[ she is happy to be alive, she always has been, but she's never quite been able to feel like she particularly deserves it. instead, she's focused on "earning" her life by helping out and being "useful" at every given opportunity. and never focusing on her feelings. it's fine. ]
[ it's hard for her to feel like she truly deserves to be alive. it still is. but this.... will.... thanks to him, it's a tiny, tiny modicum easier. he'll have to yell a lot to get it to progress more than that, though. ]
[ yeah, that is a bad thing, thanks, will, but she's relieved he isn't reacting worse. neither of them grasp just how weird it is for him to react that way, in this one instance ]
... Yeah, pretty much.
[ it goes by quicker: phoenix, introducing himself to a traumatized maya (once she's conscious) who doesn't want to talk to him, trying to soothe her by assuring her he works there, which gets her to introduce herself to him. then, he ill-advisedly shows her a receipt with the word 'maya' written in blood, which, obviously, upsets her. ]
[ detective gumshoe sweeps in, finds out that her name is maya, and arrests her for murder on the spot. she's carted away instantly. ]
[ (will was absolutely right, to no one's surprise) ]
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Also if neither of them grasp how weird something is, that means it's not weird. #logic.
Though he almost wishes it was weird. This short play isn't even shocking. It's just another day on assignment, feeling like home in all the worst ways. The current head investigator on duty getting a confirmation of something Damning - whether by accident or on purpose - then the nearest assistant goes WHOO PROOF OF MURDER and drags them off to be tortured. There's an expression here of 'moments like this, I understand why humans take up alcoholism' but without enough disgust to actually start up the bad habit.
Sigh. ]
Not to be rude? He's not getting high marks.
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... He takes a bit to warm up. Give him a chance.
[ the scene is now maya in jail. phoenix is her only visitors, and though he offers to defend her, she refuses him. her sister told her that he's a rookie and that he still needs time, and part of maya thinks that he thinks she did it. "Even you, you looked at me like I had done it!" ]
[ everyone else does, that's for sure. she instead gives him the contact info of a famous lawyer who mia had told her to call if she was ever in trouble. phoenix disappears. ]
[ when he reappears, he's clearly lying to her about the guy because he doesn't want to say what really happened. "What really happened?" memory maya asks, and phoenix just gulps because he doesn't want to say it, "You don't mean.... he refused to help?" ]
[ the expression on phoenix's face is enough for maya to tell she's right. ]
[ "I see. So I've been abandoned, then. " ]
[ her expression is crushed, broken, but somehow, not surprise. phoenix stays: he asks her about herself. she tells him that e.s.p runs in her blood, and the women of the fey family have been mediums for generations. she tells him that mia was all she had in the world, that her father died when she was very young and her mother has been missing from around the same time. she knows of a man, called 'White', who ruined her mother -- he found out about a case where they used a spirit medium to try to solve an unsolvable case, but something went wrong. the man her mother had helped implicate was innocent, and details of the investigation were leaked to this man..... who made her a laughingstock. since then, she fled the village and hasn't been seen since. how mia left several years after that, and maya has been living by herself since. the implications here are pretty yikes. ]
[ she tells all this to phoenix, as her time to find a defender is almost up. then, he makes a decision. ]
[ "I've made up my mind. I'm going to defend you whether you want me to or not!" ]
[ maya clearly has no idea what to do with this. she stares at him, uncomprehendingly. "Why?" ]
[ "I won't abandon you, Maya. You can count on me. " ]
[ maya in the memory sniffles, moved by his kindness, and then smiles. actual maya nudges will and points at the jellyfish like he's not already watching it. ]
[ "One last question," says phoenix, "You are innocent, aren't you?" ]
[ "Yes!" responds memory maya, finally showing her usual exuberance, "And I trust you! So you trust me too, okay?" ]
See?
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It also means she doesn't get the thoughts behind it. Both from the short glimpse of a memory from before with that woman scolding her, and the memory's testimony now, there is no question on where she picked up her fear of abandonment. Her blinding need to be useful - because doing so is proof that she has value, and thus less likely to be abandoned. There's a lot of Yikes here. Especially the glimpses of how she's been raised. Extremely yikes.
Yet, here stands this moron with stupid hair, who she shoved away once and who came back anyway. With none of the pity that would come with hearing a sob story. It references against how Similar it is to home. No one would have taken her side. Sure, she's obviously innocent, there's no motive to Maya killing her own sister, but no one cares about the heart anymore. To take her case is suicide. To believe her case is sheer ignorance. Yet, all he needed to hear was her say she was innocent. And he went for it. Following the usual narrative tropes that come from this situation, and the fact Maya constantly sings his praises and, he most likely proved her innocent.
Normally, the verdict would be kept internal to gather dust in the archives for eternity. But this is a Bonding Moment, and this entire mission has just been metaphorically pushing an envelope further and further, seeing how far it gets before the memories of fear become actual fear. This kind of admittance doesn't even rate. ]
What a well-meaning idiot. Everyone thinks he's a rookie, so he picks up an impossible case? Because it's right? I'd kill for a successor like him.
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[ the memory fades out, and maya's left with a ridiculously fond look on her face. don't tell nick if he ever does show, will, she'd never live it down. ]
Told ya.
[ the memories of phoenix are bittersweet because she really, really, misses him, so it's just so nice to hear his voice and see his face -- even if it is a memory being displayed through a jellyfish. ]
He's always like that. Our cases are always impossible, we have to fight through loads of lying witnesses and evidence and jerk prosecutors... He always looks like he doesn't know what he's doing, he does some really dumb, crazy things...... he gets desperate, we're always flying by the seat of our pants, but.... he always comes through. That's why he's my partner.... he saved me, and sis asked me to take care of him, so..... I help him.
[ because she wants to save people, too. she loves working with him, being able to prove innocents innocent. ]
He is an idiot, but he can be pretty smart, too. .... But don't tell him I said that, 'cause it would go straight to his head.
[ she misses him so much. ]
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[ The more she talks about him, the more it sounds like this idiot with the terrible hair and ridiculous parrot-questioning antics sounds more worthy of his Title than anyone else he's ever known. It's a last name, not a Title, so it's really just rolling with Maya's jokes than anything else, but it's a shame. At least he has Lion. Even i
f it's becLet's not think about that.
The worst part is the little things. From her words to her expression to even little things (and here he thought the phoenix's name was a bad pun), it must be killing her. With each month that goes by with more people turning up and getting their friends from home, Maya received her sister but not her Sun. And then you have certain idiots running around saying that their worlds aren't coming back. Yeah, it's fine to be skeptical, but to say it aloud is like saying to give up hope. Even now, he can hear some galaxy brain asshole going on about present versus past tense. Blah. ]
He seems like a wonderful partner.
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[ but yeah. it aches every day maya is without him, both because she misses him and because every day she's without him is another one where she has to tell herself to be hopeful that he's not really dead, that she didn't trade one dead family member for two. ]
... He is. I'm lucky to have him, too.
[ this is gonna be hilarious later when will sees him being a dick. but for now, she nudges him gently. ]
Your turn.
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At the nudging there's still that moment of 'god what do i even show it's all terrible' quickly sliding off into finding excuses to run away from the whole thing. That is totally okay to do. Except it's not and he's being a coward. Hhhhhh- ]
Yeah yeah. Keep making demands. Nothing will play otherwise.
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I have all the evidence I could ever need! [ so don't mess with her, will. she looks at him expectantly, nudging him once more. ]
[ she knows what he's thinking, and what he's worried about ]
Come on, you don't have to hesitate. I can handle it, remember?
[ don't make her hold your hand again, will ]
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