Being here with Makoto makes him happy. Living makes him happy. He's moved to a new school and had the chance to meet all kinds of new people, to be a part of their lives; to learn about the world he knew so little about until now.

So why does he feel like he's about to cry? It's getting harder to breathe. There's a feeling he's been trying to suppress that's threatening to overwhelm him now - the sense that something's horribly wrong, like time is running out and there's something missing that he needs to know - but he doesn't want to know it. Is it his fault? He doesn't know why that question comes to mind, but somehow he's sure that it is.

His fault. Something bad is coming. ...It's not like he doesn't know it's irrational - when he looked up his feelings online, trying to make sense of them, he read all about anxiety and how it can strike people without reason at the worst of times - and how just because his feelings are screaming at him, that doesn't mean those feelings are right. It should be a comfort to know that, so why...? Why does it still hurt so much to see the things that should make him happy?

"Makoto...?" Ryoji manages to stammer out Makoto's name as he notices that he's no longer alone. When did that happen? ...This won't do - he doesn't want to worry anyone, least of all Makoto, but he feels like he's about to start shaking...

"Ah... I'm sorry. You caught me at a bad time. I promise I'm fine!"

*  ―  𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑺: 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑴𝑼𝑺𝑰𝑪𝑨𝑳 𝑺𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑺. / accepting

At first, Junpei knew he had to keep his temper in control. The night before, he could remember pushing Makoto into the nearby cabinet on the ground floor, angry at Makoto for having Ryoji inside of him for years. He had to nurse his cheek after Akihiko punched him hard to knock some sense into him.

Last night was the first night, and only night thus far, where everyone was losing their mind and falling apart. Fuuka crying, Ken sobbing--it brought him back to reality and realized he was a dumbass for causing so much trouble. Hell, if he had a nickel every time he did dumbass stuff, he would have two nickels at this moment.

Sitting in the dorm's living room, watching as Makoto walked passed him, Junpei knew everyone was scared shitless about fighting in general. Including him. He winced in pain as he removed the ice pack from his face, giving it some space to breathe, as Makoto said something to him.

"...no one should have to die, Makoto." He pointed out, placing the ice pack on the table in front of him and glaring at his friend. "Too many people I've known has died." Junpei pinched the bridge of his nose, quickly removing his fingers as the pain from his cheek radiated up to his nose. A sigh escaped his lips as he leaned back on the couch, his head tilting back, unable to look at Makoto.

𝐁𝐆𝟑 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬. // accepting

"Well, of course it does. Those who are unafraid to get their hands dirty will be the ones who survive, Yuki-kun." Fuuka states, noting full well that her own hands never get dirty. She didn't even realize that she was shooting herself down. Fuuka placed a fist on her chest and looked at her friend softly. "You never seem to be scared whenever we fight shadows--it's commendable. I can only stay behind and make sure to guide you all safely."

@ochazos said: "You're...?" Of course, Makoto knew who she was. He hadn't seen Hamuko in a long time. At first glance, he didn't even recognize her. Grey eyes watch her, though there is no clear emotion on his face. "....Hamuko?"

Red headphones were out of ears the moment he spotted someone approaching her in the middle of Iwatodai Station. She was on her way home but wanted to make a quick stop to the Velvet Room and deliver a request for Theo first. Blinking twice, she stood with a hand on her waist.

"...Yes? Do I... know you? You look familiar, but... I can't put my finger on it."

"I don't know." Yukari's response came out as a weak murmur, her head hanging low and her gaze focused upon the space between her feet. She didn't have it in her to look up at the cerulean Fool, not when her mind was caught in a vicious galestorm of emotion. It seemed as if both decades and only a handful of moments had passed since Ryoji had revealed the truth of his existence, the existence of Nyx... the certainty of the Fall and the end of the world. The offer that Death made to erase their memories of the Dark Hour and let them be comforted by the bliss of ignorance before the Fall repeated in her mind... and every time it looped, a different question revealed itself. In the end, though, it came down to one damnably simple, yet difficult question.

What should we do?

In the Tumblr rpc, not really, can only really think of one minor thing and that was someone in an rpc's small discord server they was dealt with fast. In general far too often. But in any rpc.... I had a whole one or two years of sitting in this group that went from fun rp and headcanons to hierarchies and group politics, unfortunately I was friends with "both sides" so one side was chill with me and the other said I betrayed them by...being in someone else's discord because their friend didn't like that person (solely bc they argued all the time). I joined another group chat of the wider rpc and found out at least one person from group 2 up there was staging discord messages to make them look like bad people, even as far as nazis, and I pushed myself in to point out it was cropped and he made the joke first. That and a growing abundance of r34, porn, and minors in charge of monitoring those groups being judgemental if you didn't like that you or they could see the r34. I'm having war flashbacks my guy. Almost stopped joining rpcs cause of them.

Send “Are you okay?” for my muse to  have a mental breakdown in front of yours.

--

There wasn't any particular reason for it. It wasn't like anything had happened that caused Ren's mask to crack. Everything had just been building up, bit by bit. Something had to give eventually, and it just so happened to happen in front of Makoto.