[ The last dying embers of laughter sputter forth as Maruki takes in yet another Akechi Fun Fact! and nods along, inhaling sharply through his nose. Breathe. Focus. Get it together. ]
Well, it could still happen. You never know.
[ He grins, then, and continues on. ]
Come on. We're not far.
[ He lets silence slide comfortably over them as they make their way along the trail. Akechi's certainly earned it, after all that.
The less-traveled path has one more steep section, a series of switch-backs before leveling off to reveal a small clearing along the cliff's edge. The boughs of the trees surrounding it sag low, heavy with luminescent leaves. The effect creates a little enclave that others have clearly discovered long before Maruki ever did – a halved log is set up as a makeshift bench, small patches of glowing flowers sprouted up around it.
Maruki stretches his arms over his head with a huge sigh of exertion and contentment for having reached their destination, then gestures for Akechi to join him.
The view isn't anywhere near as expansive as it is from the summit, but it has its own charm. It faces toward the labyrinth and the great looming castle, the town mostly out of sight at this face of the cliffside. It's quiet, secluded–
And the only place where Maruki wanted to eventually have this conversation. Things with Eren just solidified the need to have it now. ]
Can I admit something to you?
[ For all the conversations they've had about Maruki walking a razor's edge if he enters the cognitive world, what follows is the truth. ]
I don't understand how you think I might get in the way of your plan badly enough to necessitate my murder.
[ He rests his forearms over his knees in front of him, clasps his hands together loosely. ]
I'd like you to explain it to me. Honestly. Please.
[This conversation wasn't supposed to occur on the dimly lit edge of a cliff.
If Maruki wanted to hear more, it should have-
Been spoken the day Akechi sunk his fingertips into flesh, pressed down tentatively, loose lips unleashing secrets he never wanted to spill. Maruki had a chance. Chose to leave it behind. Walk out. The walls absorbed the last of Akechi's words and Maruki disappeared behind them. A shield meant for one of them - he can't be sure which.
But he asks it - 'I'd like you to explain it to me. Honestly. Please.' after-
Asking his potential murderer to sit beside him. After walking beside a boy on desolate cliffsides. Someone who didn't hesitate to strangle the life out of him weeks ago.
Maruki's too complacent with his power. That's Akechi's first thought. Loki ignites in his chest - rip him to shreds in these close quarters. Azathoth is strong. Fast. Responsive.
Akechi is experienced. Tenacious. Fueled by something greater.
But Loki doesn't appear. Akechi doesn't pull out his gun. The only way Maruki is pierced is with Akechi's own gaze, equal parts baffled and-
Amused maybe.
This is a stupid goddamn game Maruki's playing and-
Akechi looks away to stare at the same view. Labyrinth. Castle. A false world.
Talking about this so openly is bizarre. Under an expansive sky, in a world that feels larger than the four walls of his empty room. It's why he remains silent for a few minutes after. Entertains the thought with his palms pressed into the bench, leaning back in a manner that might seem relaxed, if not for the way his body looks like it may spring up at any second. ]
Does it matter?
[It doesn't. Stay out of the cognitive world. Easy. That's it. Become a low priority and exist in the shadows. It's so fucking simple. ]
If you become a noticable issue, I'll be sent to deal with you.
[Neutral. Stated swiftly. They're talking about the weather and new cafe openings down the road. ]
Since you'll best me in the cognitive world, a cleaner will deal with you in reality though-
[Maruki asked for Akechi's reasoning. He knows. Doesn't care. It's his and his alone. ]
Your level of importance is minuscule. You're nothing now that he has your research, frankly.
[-Asked why Akechi would have to do it and why Akechi should do it and-]
Not many people get to learn about a way they could die. You've been afforded an opportunity and yet, you still reach for more. How unexpectedly greedy of you.
[ Akechi has a point. This really is a conversation few could have, especially with their potential killer. He really shouldn't push for more. Or push at all. He should accept it, should keep his head down–
Something he's never been particularly skilled at. ]
It isn't greed, necessarily. I just want to be prepared.
[ But it doesn't make sense. Either there's some missing piece that Maruki hasn't been able to suss out yet, or Akechi's lying. The explanation as he's given it is an incomplete picture. Maruki's mouth twists into a frown as he considers it.
He draws a breath and opens his mouth as if to speak, but nothing comes.
This is unwise.
This is beyond unwise.
Akechi could pull out the gun that's always on him and end this as soon as Maruki presses farther. He could shove him over the sheer cliff face and watch him fall down, down, down.
Azathoth would put a stop to anything he tries to do. Wouldn't it? Maruki had fought so hard to keep it suppressed when Akechi began to strangle him in his room. If he hadn't been able to throw Akechi off, if he'd been allowed to crush his throat as he wanted to, who's to say Azathoth wouldn't have overridden his wishes and appeared anyway? Will any real harm ever befall him here so long as the blind idiot god is hellbent on his survival?
It's a luxury he won't have in their true reality. He wants to know what to expect there.
It's a couple minutes before he tries again. ]
If I'm so unimportant, how could I become a noticeable issue? And if it's my actions in the cognitive world that would make me an issue, how would anyone find out but you?
[ Unless Shido has eyes in the cognitive world that aren't Akechi's own. And that feels doubtful, at this point. ]
Akechi–
[ His heart thuds in his chest, frightened, anxious, miserable. ]
I want you to succeed. No matter what I do, I won't be in your way. I'm serious about this.
One of the last thoughts on earth that are his own. The last piece of autonomy he has. A plan. A goal. The broken pieces around it Akechi will splinter again and again and again, until it's dust and dirt.
There's a degree of respect he has for the man sitting next to him. It's undeniable. A power unmatched.
Respect isn't trust. Maruki knows too much because of-
Akechi. Because of curiosity. Because of the same incessant need to learn and an impossible to ignore urge to be free. To know yourself. Another world, away from the prying eyes is society, is perfect for it. An entity born from your own soul with powers and abilities that are incomprehensible.
Maruki will seek freedom in that world. Everyone does and-
Akechi doesn't care in the slightest. Not for a second. Every muscle in his body coiled so tight that a finger twitching will shatter him.
It's his. His plan is his own. That world is his. Shido is his. The deaths from his hands are his and will only be his and-
His gloves are shit - nails wearing the inside of cheap ass leather from a stupid rural town. He needs to request more from-
Someone. Swipe a black card with no limit, purchased from a company meant for the wealthy alone.
They dig and dig and dig - fist clenched tight, nails swiping at fabric anyway. His fingers feel like they'll break. They stay clenched anyway. Maruki wants him to succeed. Akechi believes it, and doesn't. Serious. Won't be in his way and-
Maruki's already in his goddamn way because he knows. Because he's talking about it. Because they're side by side despite everything, instead of separated by the rolling hills, dense forests, expansive sparkling lights and-
He blinks - dry eyes and sparkling lights vanishing with it.
He's furious. ]
Oh?
[Tense. Bitter. Fury held back with a practiced tongue. Annoyance clear in his tone anyways.
He wants to be prepared.]
What's the goddamn point?
[Akechi doesn't take his eyes off Maruki.]
I want to kill you - is that what you're looking for? There it is. Maybe for the sheer thrill of it. Some say evil is genetic, after all.
[The phantom thieves implied it in a long forgotten chatroom. The thrill of killing - so fucking hilarious.]
Or maybe there's a long, thought out plan against you. Years in the making, perhaps. I've always had my eye on you, in your piece of shit apartment.
[A laugh - quiet and bitter.]
Maybe I like betraying people and I can't wait to see how your face looks when it happens. I'll kill you the second we return to reality, no matter what I tell you now.
[A hand thrown up in irritation. It drops like lead a second later.]
[ The rage simmering in Akechi is palpable, even with how hard he fights to hide it. Maruki knows him too well by now, has seen him in too many varied states of coming unglued. He knows he's pushing his luck.
He holds Akechi's gaze throughout the entire diatribe, all of the options presented before him. None of them ring true at all. It feels like Akechi isn't even trying to make them seem convincing. And he's certainly avoiding answering the actual questions that Maruki's asked.
He brings his arms up, rests the points of his elbows on his thighs, clasped hands coming up beneath his chin. He leans his head down onto them, briefly, as he observes Akechi from the new angle. Then sits up straight again. ]
Not really, no.
[ He knows Akechi would kill him. Likely will kill him. But there is no part of him that believes Akechi genuinely wants to kill him independent of how he feels about Shido.
The problem is that it's all a snarled, tangled, cancerous mass. Is there anything that Akechi wants, considers, dreams, loves, hates, does that isn't caught in the brambles of Masayoshi Shido? ]
I asked you why you would need to kill me when I'm staying out of your way, not why you might want to do it. There's a difference.
[ Pushing, pushing, pushing. Awfully close to a cliff's edge, too. He knows his luck is on a thin, fraying rope. ]
And if Maruki ends up on a short list, targeted, marked by a cabal taking out a loose end because he thinks he's a nobody, without recognizing he should be their number one hit and-
If they do realize he's powerful - should be taken out with swift precision, in the dead of night, while he sleeps in his bed -
Akechi can't stand it. Won't allow it.
Maruki staying out his way is irrelevant because he needs to make sure this man has a deserving end that isn't at the end of a barrel wielded by a pay by the hour nobody.
The insects almost sound like cicadas, in that moment and-
Metal presses into his palm. Unprompted. Reaction to a thought, a feeling, a realization that this bastard won't shut up and-
He isn't going to shoot. Won't. Despite the way his fingers curl into the front of Maruki's shirt to jerk him forward or how the barrel presses into spot right above his glasses, between his eyes.
This isn't the angle Akechi wanted. Maruki should be on the ground, pressed against kitchen tile and looking up at Akechi through the last streams of light on a cold, fall day.
Not nearly eye to eye on a shitty bench in a false world. Not surrounded by flickering starlight and soft lit trees. Not-]
Tell me - who would you rather see holding this gun? Some pathetic sniveling nobody pulled from the fucking sewers to kill you for a miniscule price?
[Safety's off. Finger against a small piece of metal that decides -
Life. Judgement. Maruki deserves one, not both. It's out of his hand regardless.]
Or the person who sealed your fate by giving you information you should have never learned?
dear god imagine if eren had told him they can't change their futures. IMAGINE THIS AS LABY CANON
[ A fist curled into the fabric of his shirt. Cool metal nestled up against his skin. Warm breeze through the trees overhead. Dead silence save for the insects, the very distant festival, his own breath catching in his throat, and Akechi's spitting words. ]
Akechi–
[ It suddenly feels–
More horrific than he ever anticipated.
And entirely unavoidable.
He's on a list. He will be found. Akechi doesn't want him to be found by just anyone. Yes, he's asking what Maruki wants, but that's not what this is about. He knows Akechi. If he truly didn't care, then he would have already decided to toss Maruki to the wolves and let anyone from Shido's cabal deal with him. Wouldn't be taking it into his own hands, deliberately.
His heart pounds, stutters, races – and aches.
His mouth is dry. Throat dry. Eyes dry. He thought he might cry if it ever came to this, but he doesn't have a single part of his mind left over to dedicate to it. He's only focused, present, terrified, accepting, miserable, foolish– everything, all of it.
Well. He wanted to know what to expect. Here it is.
Azathoth's energy crackles and percolates at the base of his skull, tendrils snaking through all of his thoughts and feelings and senses, desperate to come forth– Maruki doesn't let it.
Slowly, ever so slowly, he reaches a hand up to wrap around Akechi's wrist. Doesn't push it away. Doesn't force him to stay there, either. Just anchors the grip that Akechi already has on the gun, the angle that he already has it pressed against Maruki's head, thumb against his pulse. ]
I don't want you to have to be the one to do that. You don't deserve that.
I CANT I CANT OHHH THANK GOD EREN SAID WORDS OH DIRE
['You don't deserve that' repeated over and over. Each time sounds more ridiculous than the last.
A finger on his pulse, hand around his wrist, gun pressed to flesh.
Maruki is insane.
The blatant touch incredulous on its own - the lack of self-preservation a different beast.
Akechi wants him to fight. Expects it. Craves it. Maruki promised to show resolve and instead he says shit like You don't deserve it.]
Who are you to say that? It means nothing to me, like every other death by my hand. Remember, if it comes to that, you aren't first. You won't be the last.
[Other targets. Shido. Maruki is a name on a list. A number. Nothing.
Maruki's worth nothing.
A ring of fire around his wrist. A racing heart that has nothing to do with the conversation happening, the man in front of him.
[ It's immediate. So immediate Akechi hardly even finishes the qualifying statement. He will not take the gun. He won't ever hold a gun, to his own head or anyone else's. Maruki has already bent plenty of his own morals, but that will always remain his hard line.
No, he won't take the gun.
He lets Akechi's wrist go. Can still feel his racing pulse beneath his thumb. Drops his hand back down to his lap. Doesn't move away otherwise. ]
A broken home in the rural countryside, a fiancé lost forever, life's work stolen, career halted and twisted by a shadowy hand from the depths.
He'll have one more, in a few minutes. Akechi's hand doesn't fall - gun pressed to skull with enough pressure that he can see the vaguest outline of the barrel's top indented into flesh. Barely visible. Maruki speaks and his skin moves. Little red outline.
A hypothetical. How fucking stupid. Azathoth should be ripping Akechi's arm off its host . Maruki isn't soft, but he is forgiving even as brutality happens to him. Ready to forgive before an attack even happens.
[ The cool metal of the barrel digging into his skin. Maruki can hardly feel it, nerves going numb with adrenaline and terror, both for what he's experiencing and what he's about to say. ]
Say that right before you arrived in Somnius, you were on the verge of doing something massive.
[ Bones as tall as skyscrapers jutting into a blood red sky. Had Akechi seen it too? ]
It seemed like the right thing to do at the time– the only thing to do. The fulfillment of your life's dream, even.
[ The time for your unjustly persecuted ideology is now at hand. ]
But you had no idea what you were getting into. None at all. And you've been afforded the opportunity here to learn what a tremendous mistake you were about to make. You've learned from the best.
[ His eyes are locked on Akechi's. He means it so, so sincerely. Without lessons imparted upon him by Akechi, Venat, Eren, Kurogiri, Maki... He never would have come to understand the value of pain. ]
You would do anything to change the path that you were on back in your true reality, knowing what you know now. Anything.
[ He swallows, a mass in his throat hard as rock. He's so disgusted with himself, it rises up hot and angry behind his eyes, vision shaking with the tension held in his jaw. ]
And it doesn't matter. You've been told that there's nothing you can do to change what's coming. That the future you wished for is inevitable.
[ Is he even breathing anymore? Maybe Akechi's already pulled the trigger. ]
[It's inevitable. Inevitable. No changing a future.
A man with an unrealized wish learning that regrets often come too late and-
Akechi who has never regretted a moment of his life.
It always ends this way. Fate is unjust. The world is unjust. People are unjust. People are rotten.
Maruki is rotten.
A meaningless nobody in a sea of them.
Another target on a list Akechi never knows the full capacity of.]
I would stop it at its source.
[And
he
shoots.
One pull of a trigger is all it takes. No silencer on it - the sound is piercing. Ears ring and ache and-
Maruki looks the same Joker, slumped over like this.
Skull fragment and viscera. Blood and clumps of hair. It decorates the bench, the trees behind them.
It was loud and it won't matter in this false reality. Fights are the norm and-
All Akechi did was attack a monster.
The stars are buried under a sea of wishes that will never be and Akechi leans back, turns his head up, and tries to catch the sight of a single, glimmering light among the false ones.
It's not there.
A weight presses against his side - sleeve and shirt wet from blooming liquid. He doesn't look. He's happy.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
NORMAL LANTERN FESTIVAL OCCURRENCES
[ The last dying embers of laughter sputter forth as Maruki takes in yet another Akechi Fun Fact! and nods along, inhaling sharply through his nose. Breathe. Focus. Get it together. ]
Well, it could still happen. You never know.
[ He grins, then, and continues on. ]
Come on. We're not far.
[ He lets silence slide comfortably over them as they make their way along the trail. Akechi's certainly earned it, after all that.
The less-traveled path has one more steep section, a series of switch-backs before leveling off to reveal a small clearing along the cliff's edge. The boughs of the trees surrounding it sag low, heavy with luminescent leaves. The effect creates a little enclave that others have clearly discovered long before Maruki ever did – a halved log is set up as a makeshift bench, small patches of glowing flowers sprouted up around it.
Maruki stretches his arms over his head with a huge sigh of exertion and contentment for having reached their destination, then gestures for Akechi to join him.
The view isn't anywhere near as expansive as it is from the summit, but it has its own charm. It faces toward the labyrinth and the great looming castle, the town mostly out of sight at this face of the cliffside. It's quiet, secluded–
And the only place where Maruki wanted to eventually have this conversation. Things with Eren just solidified the need to have it now. ]
Can I admit something to you?
[ For all the conversations they've had about Maruki walking a razor's edge if he enters the cognitive world, what follows is the truth. ]
I don't understand how you think I might get in the way of your plan badly enough to necessitate my murder.
[ He rests his forearms over his knees in front of him, clasps his hands together loosely. ]
I'd like you to explain it to me. Honestly. Please.
SO NORMAL!!!!!!!;
If Maruki wanted to hear more, it should have-
Been spoken the day Akechi sunk his fingertips into flesh, pressed down tentatively, loose lips unleashing secrets he never wanted to spill. Maruki had a chance. Chose to leave it behind. Walk out. The walls absorbed the last of Akechi's words and Maruki disappeared behind them. A shield meant for one of them - he can't be sure which.
But he asks it - 'I'd like you to explain it to me. Honestly. Please.' after-
Asking his potential murderer to sit beside him. After walking beside a boy on desolate cliffsides. Someone who didn't hesitate to strangle the life out of him weeks ago.
Maruki's too complacent with his power. That's Akechi's first thought. Loki ignites in his chest - rip him to shreds in these close quarters. Azathoth is strong. Fast. Responsive.
Akechi is experienced. Tenacious. Fueled by something greater.
But Loki doesn't appear. Akechi doesn't pull out his gun. The only way Maruki is pierced is with Akechi's own gaze, equal parts baffled and-
Amused maybe.
This is a stupid goddamn game Maruki's playing and-
Akechi looks away to stare at the same view. Labyrinth. Castle. A false world.
Talking about this so openly is bizarre. Under an expansive sky, in a world that feels larger than the four walls of his empty room. It's why he remains silent for a few minutes after. Entertains the thought with his palms pressed into the bench, leaning back in a manner that might seem relaxed, if not for the way his body looks like it may spring up at any second. ]
Does it matter?
[It doesn't. Stay out of the cognitive world. Easy. That's it. Become a low priority and exist in the shadows. It's so fucking simple. ]
If you become a noticable issue, I'll be sent to deal with you.
[Neutral. Stated swiftly. They're talking about the weather and new cafe openings down the road. ]
Since you'll best me in the cognitive world, a cleaner will deal with you in reality though-
[Maruki asked for Akechi's reasoning. He knows. Doesn't care. It's his and his alone. ]
Your level of importance is minuscule. You're nothing now that he has your research, frankly.
[-Asked why Akechi would have to do it and why Akechi should do it and-]
Not many people get to learn about a way they could die. You've been afforded an opportunity and yet, you still reach for more. How unexpectedly greedy of you.
: )))))))))))))))
Something he's never been particularly skilled at. ]
It isn't greed, necessarily. I just want to be prepared.
[ But it doesn't make sense. Either there's some missing piece that Maruki hasn't been able to suss out yet, or Akechi's lying. The explanation as he's given it is an incomplete picture. Maruki's mouth twists into a frown as he considers it.
He draws a breath and opens his mouth as if to speak, but nothing comes.
This is unwise.
This is beyond unwise.
Akechi could pull out the gun that's always on him and end this as soon as Maruki presses farther. He could shove him over the sheer cliff face and watch him fall down, down, down.
Azathoth would put a stop to anything he tries to do. Wouldn't it? Maruki had fought so hard to keep it suppressed when Akechi began to strangle him in his room. If he hadn't been able to throw Akechi off, if he'd been allowed to crush his throat as he wanted to, who's to say Azathoth wouldn't have overridden his wishes and appeared anyway? Will any real harm ever befall him here so long as the blind idiot god is hellbent on his survival?
It's a luxury he won't have in their true reality. He wants to know what to expect there.
It's a couple minutes before he tries again. ]
If I'm so unimportant, how could I become a noticeable issue? And if it's my actions in the cognitive world that would make me an issue, how would anyone find out but you?
[ Unless Shido has eyes in the cognitive world that aren't Akechi's own. And that feels doubtful, at this point. ]
Akechi–
[ His heart thuds in his chest, frightened, anxious, miserable. ]
I want you to succeed. No matter what I do, I won't be in your way. I'm serious about this.
no subject
One of the last thoughts on earth that are his own. The last piece of autonomy he has. A plan. A goal. The broken pieces around it Akechi will splinter again and again and again, until it's dust and dirt.
There's a degree of respect he has for the man sitting next to him. It's undeniable. A power unmatched.
Respect isn't trust. Maruki knows too much because of-
Akechi. Because of curiosity. Because of the same incessant need to learn and an impossible to ignore urge to be free. To know yourself. Another world, away from the prying eyes is society, is perfect for it. An entity born from your own soul with powers and abilities that are incomprehensible.
Maruki will seek freedom in that world. Everyone does and-
Akechi doesn't care in the slightest. Not for a second. Every muscle in his body coiled so tight that a finger twitching will shatter him.
It's his. His plan is his own. That world is his. Shido is his. The deaths from his hands are his and will only be his and-
His gloves are shit - nails wearing the inside of cheap ass leather from a stupid rural town. He needs to request more from-
Someone. Swipe a black card with no limit, purchased from a company meant for the wealthy alone.
They dig and dig and dig - fist clenched tight, nails swiping at fabric anyway. His fingers feel like they'll break. They stay clenched anyway. Maruki wants him to succeed. Akechi believes it, and doesn't. Serious. Won't be in his way and-
Maruki's already in his goddamn way because he knows. Because he's talking about it. Because they're side by side despite everything, instead of separated by the rolling hills, dense forests, expansive sparkling lights and-
He blinks - dry eyes and sparkling lights vanishing with it.
He's furious. ]
Oh?
[Tense. Bitter. Fury held back with a practiced tongue. Annoyance clear in his tone anyways.
He wants to be prepared.]
What's the goddamn point?
[Akechi doesn't take his eyes off Maruki.]
I want to kill you - is that what you're looking for? There it is. Maybe for the sheer thrill of it. Some say evil is genetic, after all.
[The phantom thieves implied it in a long forgotten chatroom. The thrill of killing - so fucking hilarious.]
Or maybe there's a long, thought out plan against you. Years in the making, perhaps. I've always had my eye on you, in your piece of shit apartment.
[A laugh - quiet and bitter.]
Maybe I like betraying people and I can't wait to see how your face looks when it happens. I'll kill you the second we return to reality, no matter what I tell you now.
[A hand thrown up in irritation. It drops like lead a second later.]
Did any of that suffice?
no subject
He holds Akechi's gaze throughout the entire diatribe, all of the options presented before him. None of them ring true at all. It feels like Akechi isn't even trying to make them seem convincing. And he's certainly avoiding answering the actual questions that Maruki's asked.
He brings his arms up, rests the points of his elbows on his thighs, clasped hands coming up beneath his chin. He leans his head down onto them, briefly, as he observes Akechi from the new angle. Then sits up straight again. ]
Not really, no.
[ He knows Akechi would kill him. Likely will kill him. But there is no part of him that believes Akechi genuinely wants to kill him independent of how he feels about Shido.
The problem is that it's all a snarled, tangled, cancerous mass. Is there anything that Akechi wants, considers, dreams, loves, hates, does that isn't caught in the brambles of Masayoshi Shido? ]
I asked you why you would need to kill me when I'm staying out of your way, not why you might want to do it. There's a difference.
[ Pushing, pushing, pushing. Awfully close to a cliff's edge, too. He knows his luck is on a thin, fraying rope. ]
no subject
Maruki is his problem.
And if Maruki ends up on a short list, targeted, marked by a cabal taking out a loose end because he thinks he's a nobody, without recognizing he should be their number one hit and-
If they do realize he's powerful - should be taken out with swift precision, in the dead of night, while he sleeps in his bed -
Akechi can't stand it. Won't allow it.
Maruki staying out his way is irrelevant because he needs to make sure this man has a deserving end that isn't at the end of a barrel wielded by a pay by the hour nobody.
The insects almost sound like cicadas, in that moment and-
Metal presses into his palm. Unprompted. Reaction to a thought, a feeling, a realization that this bastard won't shut up and-
He isn't going to shoot. Won't. Despite the way his fingers curl into the front of Maruki's shirt to jerk him forward or how the barrel presses into spot right above his glasses, between his eyes.
This isn't the angle Akechi wanted. Maruki should be on the ground, pressed against kitchen tile and looking up at Akechi through the last streams of light on a cold, fall day.
Not nearly eye to eye on a shitty bench in a false world. Not surrounded by flickering starlight and soft lit trees. Not-]
Tell me - who would you rather see holding this gun? Some pathetic sniveling nobody pulled from the fucking sewers to kill you for a miniscule price?
[Safety's off. Finger against a small piece of metal that decides -
Life. Judgement. Maruki deserves one, not both. It's out of his hand regardless.]
Or the person who sealed your fate by giving you information you should have never learned?
dear god imagine if eren had told him they can't change their futures. IMAGINE THIS AS LABY CANON
Akechi–
[ It suddenly feels–
More horrific than he ever anticipated.
And entirely unavoidable.
He's on a list. He will be found. Akechi doesn't want him to be found by just anyone. Yes, he's asking what Maruki wants, but that's not what this is about. He knows Akechi. If he truly didn't care, then he would have already decided to toss Maruki to the wolves and let anyone from Shido's cabal deal with him. Wouldn't be taking it into his own hands, deliberately.
His heart pounds, stutters, races – and aches.
His mouth is dry. Throat dry. Eyes dry. He thought he might cry if it ever came to this, but he doesn't have a single part of his mind left over to dedicate to it. He's only focused, present, terrified, accepting, miserable, foolish– everything, all of it.
Well. He wanted to know what to expect. Here it is.
Azathoth's energy crackles and percolates at the base of his skull, tendrils snaking through all of his thoughts and feelings and senses, desperate to come forth– Maruki doesn't let it.
Slowly, ever so slowly, he reaches a hand up to wrap around Akechi's wrist. Doesn't push it away. Doesn't force him to stay there, either. Just anchors the grip that Akechi already has on the gun, the angle that he already has it pressed against Maruki's head, thumb against his pulse. ]
I don't want you to have to be the one to do that. You don't deserve that.
I CANT I CANT OHHH THANK GOD EREN SAID WORDS OH DIRE
A finger on his pulse, hand around his wrist, gun pressed to flesh.
Maruki is insane.
The blatant touch incredulous on its own - the lack of self-preservation a different beast.
Akechi wants him to fight. Expects it. Craves it. Maruki promised to show resolve and instead he says shit like You don't deserve it.]
Who are you to say that? It means nothing to me, like every other death by my hand. Remember, if it comes to that, you aren't first. You won't be the last.
[Other targets. Shido. Maruki is a name on a list. A number. Nothing.
Maruki's worth nothing.
A ring of fire around his wrist. A racing heart that has nothing to do with the conversation happening, the man in front of him.
The safety's on. Akechi pulls it out and-]
Take the gun. I won't stop you.
stares deeply into the void
No.
[ It's immediate. So immediate Akechi hardly even finishes the qualifying statement. He will not take the gun. He won't ever hold a gun, to his own head or anyone else's. Maruki has already bent plenty of his own morals, but that will always remain his hard line.
No, he won't take the gun.
He lets Akechi's wrist go. Can still feel his racing pulse beneath his thumb. Drops his hand back down to his lap. Doesn't move away otherwise. ]
I have a hypothetical that I want to run by you.
[ With a gun to his head?
Sure, if Akechi doesn't drop it. ]
breathesDJSOAFJO
A broken home in the rural countryside, a fiancé lost forever, life's work stolen, career halted and twisted by a shadowy hand from the depths.
He'll have one more, in a few minutes. Akechi's hand doesn't fall - gun pressed to skull with enough pressure that he can see the vaguest outline of the barrel's top indented into flesh. Barely visible. Maruki speaks and his skin moves. Little red outline.
A hypothetical. How fucking stupid. Azathoth should be ripping Akechi's arm off its host . Maruki isn't soft, but he is forgiving even as brutality happens to him. Ready to forgive before an attack even happens.
He laughs - mirthless, cruel and short lived.]
By all means.
looks AWAY from you
Say that right before you arrived in Somnius, you were on the verge of doing something massive.
[ Bones as tall as skyscrapers jutting into a blood red sky. Had Akechi seen it too? ]
It seemed like the right thing to do at the time– the only thing to do. The fulfillment of your life's dream, even.
[ The time for your unjustly persecuted ideology is now at hand. ]
But you had no idea what you were getting into. None at all. And you've been afforded the opportunity here to learn what a tremendous mistake you were about to make. You've learned from the best.
[ His eyes are locked on Akechi's. He means it so, so sincerely. Without lessons imparted upon him by Akechi, Venat, Eren, Kurogiri, Maki... He never would have come to understand the value of pain. ]
You would do anything to change the path that you were on back in your true reality, knowing what you know now. Anything.
[ He swallows, a mass in his throat hard as rock. He's so disgusted with himself, it rises up hot and angry behind his eyes, vision shaking with the tension held in his jaw. ]
And it doesn't matter. You've been told that there's nothing you can do to change what's coming. That the future you wished for is inevitable.
[ Is he even breathing anymore? Maybe Akechi's already pulled the trigger. ]
What would you do?
ah <3
A man with an unrealized wish learning that regrets often come too late and-
Akechi who has never regretted a moment of his life.
It always ends this way. Fate is unjust. The world is unjust. People are unjust. People are rotten.A meaningless nobody in a sea of them.
Another target on a list Akechi never knows the full capacity of.]
I would stop it at its source.
[And
shoots.
One pull of a trigger is all it takes. No silencer on it - the sound is piercing. Ears ring and ache and-Maruki looks the same Joker, slumped over like this.
Skull fragment and viscera. Blood and clumps of hair. It decorates the bench, the trees behind them.
It was loud and it won't matter in this false reality. Fights are the norm and-
All Akechi did was attack a monster.
The stars are buried under a sea of wishes that will never be and Akechi leans back, turns his head up, and tries to catch the sight of a single, glimmering light among the false ones.
It's not there.
A weight presses against his side - sleeve and shirt wet from blooming liquid. He doesn't look. He's happy.
This is where your wish ends, Maruki-san.