#cdavre

Shigaraki knew the red district like the back of his hand. It was almost like a second home for him. Though, home was a bad word for him because he destroyed his original one. Shigaraki had grown up in back alleys so he knew exactly how to walk in them without being noticed. He stepped silently in his bright red sneakers. 

Shigaraki couldn’t compare to this guy, however. The masked man moved through the shadows so fluidly, it was like he was a vampire afraid he would be burned by the light. Shigaraki would have never noticed him, except he had come to the red district looking exactly for this type of person. 

“Boo.” 

Shigaraki said, sliding up behind him. He stood tall and thin, but with a hunched back. He had slow, jerky movements like a broken doll. His breathing was loud and labored. There were several scabs on his face from wounds that he picked at, over and over. His eyes were red, and completely bloodshot, his pupils shrinking as he looked at the man in front of him. 

Shigaraki was wearing a mask too. It was a severed hand that gripped his face. It covered the top half of his face. His lips were apparent underneath, torn by a childhood scar, and chapped. 

And, he was smiling at Erik.  He was a child smiling at his new toy. 

“Put more experience points into stealth dude if you want to stay hidden.” 

Noted for you!

The second to last thing Aqua had expected to find here was... A cat. At first startled by the creatures appearance, she had not yet taken note of anyone else who might have accompanied it, simply surprised that such an obviously well-loved thing was wandering apparently by itself.

Still, it was cute. Regal and refined, mostly, but cute! Whoever owned it clearly had expensive tastes, judging by the collar it wore. Extending a hand towards it, Aqua patiently waited for it to approach-- Yet her head snapped up at the sound of yet another person coming forth.

         ❝Is someone there?❞ Aqua called, brow furrowing as she lowered her hand and craned her neck to get a good look at whoever might be coming up the rise.

It was better this way—alone.

And he did his best to keep it that way. He padded roughly up and down the streets, whatever citizens once occupied this area fled at the sight of him. Even the birds and stray cats—once his friends—were nowhere to be seen.

Neither was the real Steven.

Whenever it got too quiet, as it did often, his heavy steps and crashes splintered the very concrete beneath him, rippling out and sounding off every car alarm into loud wails.

It didn’t drown out Steven’s roars.

Roars of anger, of pain, of fear, of hate. Hate for himself for becoming this thing, not knowing self-hate was exactly what kept him imprisoned as his monster.

Steven stopped in his tracks, muzzle uplifted at the scent of something unfamiliar coming closer to his territory. He turned on his heels and pounced towards the smells, skidding to a crashing halt inches from the intruder.

Whoever you are…run! His inner thoughts were muddled by his monster brain.

White hair, and red eyes. His skin was already damaged beyond repair, but Tenko made it worse with his constant scratching. Itch, itch, itch, it looked like he was trying to scratch the skin off of his own face. Perhaps, underneath his skin he would find a child that someone loved. He looked like a child that had clawed his way out of the grave, poor, lonely, unwanted thing. 

There was an old lady in the middle of the road. For a moment she took pity on Tenko and leaned over to look closer. Can I help you, young man. Tenko tried to smile back. He wondered if something was wrong with his smile, because the lady suddenly looked so afraid of him. She quickly made an excuse and left him standing there. 

Shimura scratched at his neck again. Then his wrists. “Hey, Mr...” He asked the masked figure that was watching him. His eyes were swollen and red, his face and his neck wrinkled, he looked like he was rotting, his skin turning grey-green.His clothes were in tatters, a simple black t shirt, and white shorts, clinging to the frame of his body. Small, skeletal, fragile. Everyone around him looked so scared but Tenko was the most scared of all. 

“How come nobody will look at me? Am I invisible?” The masked man was the only one who didn’t look away. Tenko had caught him spying from the shadows. He didn’t look afraid.

Mitsuba had gotten off work for the day.

He hummed quietly to himself, an iced coffee in one hand and a bag of cookies in the other, as he made his way through one of the parks dotted around the edge of Cotes; it was really nice, even now, to just be able to walk around like this and enjoy -- y’know, doing this! It was still so foreign to him. You’d think after months of having been in the city (had it really been since January?), Mitsuba would have gotten used to being able to live life.

Nope!

Being told you would never have a chance at being a normal human and then actually being given that chance was something he didn’t think would ever grow old.

He practically had a skip to his step, too!

In fact, it was -- actually only the sound of someone else that had his skipping and humming come to a halt. These parks were always pretty busy and it wasn’t a surprise that other people were here; he didn’t really care about that, and that wasn’t what had him pausing. Instead, it sounded like someone was... singing?

Oh -- their voice was really pretty, actually, and Mitsuba found himself instinctively following the sound. Some... guy, was it? Looked to be all by himself, which was really weird, because his voice really was nice.

Well, luckily for him, Mitsuba had heard and seen him, so he didn’t need to be alone anymore! Look, Mitsuba was even gonna bound right up and offer one of his cookies to him.

||  █ ▌— the performance was spectacular indeed--hifumi wasn’t used to classical music, as it were ( more used to rhythm and club music ), but there was something moving about the man’s performance on the piano. it was worth taking the time to see it. besides, the venue was nice. he felt at home in his suit, at least, though he’d toned down his jewelry to just the essentials.

after the performance was done, he lingered perhaps a bit longer than was strictly necessary, hoping to catch the pianist leaving. luck seemed to be on his side, and he approached with a bright, beaming smile and clasping his hands together.