DON'T LOOK AT ME

“Alright, keep up with me, okay? I wouldn’t want anyone attacking you again.” His voice is still soft as he shifts his gaze away, glancing at his map to see just how far from the platform they have gotten, then beginning to walk. He tries to think about this. He’s a smart boy, he understands this is certainly not his leader. He’s used to Joker looming over him, he’s never been eye-to-eye the same height before.  He might even be a little taller. Just by an inch.  Not only that, but he almost…looks a little bit like everyone. A bit of Ryuji, some Ann, a little like Yusuke, Futaba, Haru- all of them. This is a cognitive world, after all…if he puts this together right, this is the publics’ world, so…this must be the public’s Phantom Menace.  He doesn’t voice his thoughts, merely leading the way until he could hop up onto the platform and encourage the other to follow, sitting down as the sounds of passing trains and the presence of the world hangs heavy, though it’s a little safer here.  “Are you hungry? I don’t know if you eat, but I did bring a few Big Bang Burgers before I came, would you like to try one? They’re pretty good! I know a lot of people like them.” 

     He nods. Following is better than being looked at by far, the fear is shaken off immediately the moment Mishima is leading instead of looking, it simply melts away like sugar in boiling water. His back is exposed       Draw your weapon, see what he has-- He saved you, saved you        No honor among thieves I don’t want to hurt him         Except you do. Which is why I’m having these thoughts

He blinks a few times, watching Mishima make his way up onto the platform, and he realizes, he’s been gripping his dagger so hard, his knuckles have begun to hurt. He forces himself to loosen that grip, and then to sheath the dagger back at his hip.

“...hn” Hungry? Well, he isn’t sure actually, he doesn’t need to eat, so he doesn’t really have a concept of hunger, but he is insatiably curious, so he approaches Mishima with a faked confidence he does not actually feel. “I...” he doesn’t talk much, or rather, he doesn’t get the chance to talk much, it’s obviously something he’s a little rusty at.

Either way, he moves to sit at one of the rest stop benches, in a corner, back and sides protected, it feels safer.

It’s not a big deal that he’s in Mementos alone, he knows his own limits, swift and blending in with the darkness as the trailed along, searching for a target he planned to take down for the Phansite when it happened. It was a bit of a whirlwind, and he couldn’t quite register it all until his eyes trailed towards… Joker? No- it couldn’t be, he usually comes with Morgana…

The Kelpie is a little more important right now, so he takes care of that first. Summoning his Persona and eliminating his enemy before his eyes would trail back to the other. His once strong expression beginning to soften as he puts his weapons away.

“Hey, are you alright?” His voice is gentle, spoken with earnest concern. “I can heal you, if you’d let me.”

He knows that this is another one of those instances. It has to be. Where this is a Joker that isn’t quite his own. Though this one is strikingly similar. Still. He didn’t attack as soon as he saw him, or join the battle against him. So he offers his support, holding out his hand and performing a quick recover on them both before there could be room for argument or take backs.

“It’s really unsafe here, we shouldn’t stay. Do you wanna find somewhere else to go and talk?”

Don’t look at me        With those kind eyes. You’re pitying me.         I know you are. If I turn my back          Maybe you would Attack me too

He feels like a lamb before a wolf, mouse before serpent, his heart races along with his thoughts. When Mishima casts a spell, it jolts his mind into reality, unlocks his trembling muscles, and he skitters back a step, and then another, his arm doesn’t hurt anymore, but he keeps it to his chest anyway.

More than anything, he wants to sink into the shadows, to disappear, but in a fit of irony, his brilliant scarlet coat is the opposite of what could be considered stealthy, nor are the white of the shirt beneath. 

The dagger is reassuring in his grasp, and he does not sheath it. Instead, he observes Mishima with eyes that are not-quite Joker’s, with pupils pinhole thin in the crimson pools of their iris.  Don’t     Look          At            Me

He tries to slow his racing heart, reigns in his breathing, it takes great effort to appear somewhat calm, rather than terrified.

Despite this, his head moves in a single slow nod.

“...Okay.”

Please just. Look somewhere else.

     Safe? Safe?      Safe? Safe?      u̸n̸s̴a̸f̶e̶

There is a terrible snap of terrible teeth. It closes where his calf had been but a moment ago, that terrible mouth, and he brings the hilt of his dagger downwards with force towards the kelpie’s head, it’s all blunt force meant to stun, and the moment the hit connects, the hand raises, turns, and drives the point downwards towards the creature’s head, which whips up again, and blunt teeth dig into his arm--above the coat, luckily.

It is enough protection to avoid the drawing of blood beyond a few minor cuts, mostly it just hurts and it bruises almost immediately, it sends his hand reeling back so he can clutch it against his chest, turn tail, and flee. He isn’t a bad fighter, he’d simply been ambushed.

The railroad tracks make for awful obstacles, never certain when they would jut upwards or dip down, but he’s incredibly agile, and even outside of his home world’s Mementos, he is still a shadow, and he still knows his way around.

     Tap-tap-tap, his boots against the metal as he allows himself to cross from one side to another, making a swift dodge and preventing those earlier blunt teeth from closing upon his shoulder, he turns enough to lash out with the dagger, leaving a thin, clean line across the Kelpie’s muzzle, but he does not stay to follow up.

He does not see the other boy until he turns the corner, and by then it is too late, his hard, ragged breaths increase in volume, collision course unavoidable, at least not with any manner of turn, instead, he turns at the last second, weight dropping, there is a slide against concrete as he goes screeching along the ground with the speed of his drop, he rolls upon his side once, twice, breath knocked from his lungs.

Pushing himself up on that same bruised arm he’d lamented earlier, he winces, now he’s made a fool of himself, it is not the first time, somehow, he always seems to end up in these situations, the cruelty of fate, or perhaps simply the cruelty of Mementos.

He looks past the stranger and at the Kelpie, who seems to have stopped in the presence of an actual Persona user.

                   [ "If light becomes stronger, darkness becomes deeper as well" ]

Semi-Indie | Private | Selective | 18+ Cognitive Iteration of “Joker” Read the Rules                                                                                                       Penned by Nines..