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[pheasantboy]

[God, he sounds so... pleasant.]

Hello, you've reached Goro Akechi. Please leave a message and I'll get right back to you.

[ooc: inbox for personavelvetroomdr]

contacts

Akira Kurusu. thedevilinyourdetails
Goro Akechi. fogbornphantom
Ren Amamiya. willowandoak

Comments

[pheasantboy]

[There's a pleasant young man walking through cognitive Yongen. He has a silver case in one hand, and he's wearing an immaculate—and totally uninterfered-with—sweater vest.

He's sure he was somewhere else a moment ago. But he doesn't think too hard about it.]

[fogbornphantom]

[Oh, is this the other him? He doesn't have much of a reason to believe it's a different Akechi, but hm. There is one way to test.

So he approaches and says:]

So you finally found a sensibly colored sweater vest. Alas, I was actually starting to like the other one...

1/2

[pheasantboy]

[Just for a second, more than anything else, he looks terribly confused...]

2/2

[pheasantboy]

[... but then he smiles, bright-eyed and real, somehow. Friendly. Nice. Except for what he says.]

Goodness me. I think you must have mistaken me for someone else. [Akechi, this guy looks exactly like you. Where's your intellectual curiosity?]

[fogbornphantom]

[That's... very odd. So, not the same Akechi, but that's all he objects to?]

So you aren't surprised to see someone who looks identical to you?

[pheasantboy]

[He laughs. It chimes like a little glass bell, not offkey at all.]

Honestly? I hoped you were about to explain that to me. [Did he? He glances around, not seeming too worried.]

I hope there aren't cameras. I haven't consented to any filming, you know.

after rescue mission, ooOoOoo

[fogbornphantom]

Welcome back to the land of the living.

ooOOoooOOoooooooh

[pheasantboy]

Thank you. I suppose if it hadn't been for Yoshizawa-san, I'd still be in there.

[fogbornphantom]

I'm sure you would have been rescued sooner, if only we'd known. The problem is you were lost in a place that only appears intermittently, and a rather large one at that.

I'm actually rather surprised you ended up in there to begin with.

[pheasantboy]

Let me guess. You don't think I should have been able to see it.

[fogbornphantom]

It's more that I'm surprised you could.

This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it's a rather dangerous place to be left alone. Electronics do not work during the Dark Hour, so you wouldn't have been able to contact anybody, even if you were conscious.

[pheasantboy]

That's what it's called? The Dark Hour? Not because of the moon, I take it.

I did notice my phone didn't work.

[He tried to take a picture.]

text; afternoon of phren's arrival

[paysforall]

The Ren from your world is here, if you didn't know.

Also, I've been back a few days. Sorry for disappearing on you.

-Shrike

[pheasantboy]

You were gone? Do you know, I hardly noticed. I should work on that.

I've found Ren. I'm afraid he's a little distressed.

Actually, he's very distressed.

[And Akechi doesn't remember seeing anything like it.]

[paysforall]

Don't push yourself on my account. I'm not concerned unless you forget me when I get back.

[As memory gaps go, forgetting someone who isn't around is of less concern to him than the forgetting things mid-conversation. Weirdly, he's touched that his presence had enough of an impact that realizing he wasn't there would have troubled Sparrow enough that his disappearance was erased.]

That was my impression as well, yes. He's in a sorry state. I had reason to be concerned based on what you had told me before, but it was more severe than I expected.

I admit, I'm afraid I may have contributed. It seems that it had never occurred to him that prolonged psychological isolation can be considered equivalent to torture.

[He pauses there, mostly to be sure that Sparrow can even respond to that idea.]

[pheasantboy]

[He takes all it in, the next time he looks at his phone. And then, stepping into the kitchen for a moment, he hits "call".

When and if Shrike picks up the phone, he will hear what is very clearly Ren Amamiya sobbing like a mad thing in the background.]

1/2

[paysforall]

[There's a pause on the other side, and then a sigh.

It's probably healing for Ren, ultimately - something that needs to be done. An Entrance Fee of cutting off his shackles.

But the silence on the other end of the line speaks louder even than the sobs. It's clear that Sparrow is at his wits' end.]

I'll come over. It'll be about fifteen minutes.

[His words are quiet, just in case he's on speaker, and then he hangs up.]

2/2

[paysforall]

[Fifteen minutes and twenty-three seconds later... Knock knock.

Don't ask how he knows where you live, Sparrow. He used to live in this apartment complex too, once upon a time.]

[pheasantboy]

[Shrike can probably hear him running to the door. He opens it, and a wave of very un-Sparrowlike terror washes out past him. Then again, you could just look at his face.]

Come in.

[Ren has quietened a bit, but only from exhaustion. Sparrow steps aside to let Shrike in.]

[willowandoak]

[ On the evening of Sparrow's Ren's death, another Ren opens Sparrow's message history in his phone, while also in the middle of a conversation with Crow, and sends a pair of texts. ]

crow told me what happened
how are u holding up

[midnightmaiden]

Hey, Akechi-san, are you busy?

It's okay if you are!

I just had a bad day, and I'm not sure who else I can turn to.

[pheasantboy]

Never too busy for you.

Did something happen?

[midnightmaiden]

I ran into one of the other Akechis here. The one that looks like a bird.

He said a bunch of things about me and about... my therapist.

[She needs to be careful about how she words things, just in case.]

Basically, he acted like I'm not who I think I am and got really hostile about it. He talked about me like I was some kind of puppet. Like he knew more about me than I did.

[pheasantboy]

Ah. The usual story.

[He's far from the first, after all, to try to tell either of them who they are. At this point, Sparrow is aware she can't name her therapist to him, which has allowed him to put some things together.]

What do you mean by hostile?

[midnightmaiden]

When I said he didn't know me, he got really angry.

He

Well he used that ability. The one you can't hear about without forgetting what we were talking about. He did it outside of that place you can't go.

He didn't attack me or anything, but it was so intimidating. And he did this while trying to praise "me," but he still couldn't accept me for who I am.

He thinks

[It takes a moment for her to finish that thought.]

He thinks I'm not actually Kasumi.