[Week 1, Saturday: Yang]

[purrtagonist]

[hey, friend! wherever Yang may be. . . Akira's offering her another carbonated beverage. this one is from Ikea though, paper cup and straw and all, because who would trust anything that comes out of these vending machines?]

You look like you could use a bit of a pick me up. Yeah?

[it's punctuated with a smile. a tired one, but a smile nonetheless]

Comments

[sonnen]

[ She's sitting at a picnic table in the park. It had seemed like a good enough place to be alone with her thoughts for a while. That whole trial had been... it had been exactly what she had feared and expected. The simmering thrums of her outburst are still warm on her skin. She feels angry, and stupid, and angry.

Strangled. A barehanded strangle.

It's quite a thing, to be capable of that. ]

... Sure. Thanks. [ She starts to reach for it with her right hand; reconsidering, she pulls it back and takes the cup with her left. ] Pull up a seat.

[purrtagonist]

[at the invitation, he doesn't hesitate to slide onto the picnic table bench next to her, although he leaves enough space between them so they aren't bumping shoulders. it's difficult to figure out what to say in this situation. . . especially when he's still trying to figure out his own feelings on the subject]

[in the end, he leaves the ball in her court, to start things off]

Need to talk. . .?

[sonnen]

... Nah.

[ Her favourite set of abs is dead. He strangled someone with his own hands. He was summarily tried, convicted, and executed for it. That's the rules of cribbage. By the game's perspective, they did everything right.

What can she even begin to say about that? How would she frame it? Words kind of fail her. ]

Thanks, but I'm all talked out.

[ Actually...

Propping her chin up on a hand, she looks over at him. ]

You know, I think it's your turn to talk.

[purrtagonist]

[that's fair, and he accepts her refusal for what it is. sometimes, it's hard to put feelings into words, and Akira would never force someone to do so]

[but her next statement knocks him off balance, breath hitching in his throat. Akira had never been good at talking about himself. it was always so much easier to focus on others]

What about?

[he asks, mirroring her movements as he also rests his elbow on the table]

Because there are so many places I could start.

[sonnen]

Start with your death.

[ Although Yang's manner is a bit more docile now, there's no hesitation. ]

You know all about mine, after all.

[purrtagonist]

[oh]

[of course she starts with one of the most difficult things for him to talk about]

[he stiffens, unable to mask the movement, the way his shoulders are squared and his jaw tightens. his gaze flickers away, suddenly distant, gray like clouds on a stormy day]

. . . hm.

[hmmmm]

Killed by a traitor. You read that in my profile, right?

[starting off slow]

[sonnen]

[ She did. Yang's expression sours a little, lips flattening. Killed by a traitor. Briefly, it reminds her of Pyrrha, even Penny a bit - the unnamed Spring Maiden who stumbled into Clan Branwen - and she forces the thoughts away with a pang. She's dead too. That line is so much thinner now. ]

Yeah. ... So?

[ It might sound dismissive on paper. It isn't. Her tone is urging, but gently so. ]

Who's this traitor and why did he kill you?

[ But she's still going to demand her way to answers, of course. ]

[purrtagonist]

[he doesn't interpret her response as dismissive at all. if anything, he really needs the push to keep going. this is. . . rough territory]

Goro Akechi.

[a name means nothing to her, and so he continues]

The story is long and convoluted. I can't get into it all now. [not for the sake of keeping his own secrets, but for the sake of keeping Yusuke's. Makoto's] But the abbreviated version is pretty simple.

He infiltrated my team with the intention of betraying us, and killing me. We tried to outsmart him.

And we failed.

[it's so very bare bones, but it's difficult to give anything more than that without getting into the Phantom Thieves in the first place]

[sonnen]

[ An abbreviated version is fine. She had told her own, after all. Not for the sake of other people's secrets (she doesn't know anyone here, or so she believes) but for the sake of making it understandable.

So, this? It's fine.

Yang sighs out, looking sad for him. ]

I've never tried to outsmart anyone in my life, [ obviously ] so...

[ spoiler

yang has NO IDEA where she was going with that ]

Look, I'm sorry it happened.

[purrtagonist]

[it's okay. her aborted sentence, coupled iwth her blunt apology brings a smile to Akira's face nevertheless. she doesn't have to understand the depths of what happened to offer condolences. the fact that she is is enough]

I am, too.

[god, is he]

I let my team-- my friends-- down, when I died. Left them to be picked off one by one by our enemis, like flies.

[it's weird how he can say that so calmly]

. . . I need to make it back. For them.

[sonnen]

Maybe we'll find-- I don't know, a miracle.

[ Something to get all of them - the Erased, the "surviving" out of here. To their homes. Yang misses her sister dreadfully, her team, JNPR. Qrow, Taiyang. Patch Island. Everything. Homesickness never really goes away, especially when people are using terms she doesn't know, refering to places she hadn't even known existed. ]

I worry about my team, too.

[ Ruby, Weiss... And--

Well, whatever. Yang doesn't get lost in that mist. ]

Are you the leader?

[purrtagonist]

[he looks at her in surprise when she asks that question. was it that obvious?]

Ah. Yeah, I am.

[a fact he is proud of, even though he feels like. . . well. he let them down. he feels strange about claiming it, though. especially knowing that both Yusuke and Makoto were from different points in time. from a timeline where he hadn't failed them]

[he tries to mask that uncertainty with a joke]

So long as they'll still have me, that is.

[sonnen]

I'm sure they will. You've got that leader sheen.

[ She winks at him. ]

And... Way I see it, you're working your ass off to get back to them. That isn't meaningless.

[purrtagonist]

Leader sheen?

[what does that even mean Yang!!]

And, yeah. Sure I am. But-- [if he hadn't gotten himself killed, he wouldn't even have to in the first place]

[he aborts that line of thought immediately]

Well, either way.

. . . I'm going to keep trying.

[sonnen]

Hey, come on. Don't be like that.

[ Impulsively, she flicks him in the forehead. ]

But what?

[purrtagonist]

[japosdfj hey!! he frowns, instinctively flinches from that touch, and rubs his forehead]

But.

[she really has a way of getting things out of him, doesn't she?]

. . . but I wouldn't even have to, had I not died in the first place.

[sonnen]

Everyone dies. Your ticket was just punched prematurely.

[ Some people don't even get this option. Perhaps, in some twisted way, they're lucky. When she first realised she had died, Yang had thought she might see her stepmother - the good one, the one worthy of being called mom - here, or Pyrrha-- or anyone who might not have survived the fall of Beacon.

(Of course, she doesn't realise that she did, and doesn't know it. By this world's rules.) ]

Winning this game, going back to settle the score-- That's more than just a second change. That can be your revenge.

[purrtagonist]

[revenge, huh. . .]

[his mouth twitches, gaze flickering away]

I wouldn't mind the chance to punch the guy who pulled the trigger in the face, honestly.