Isolation and cold aren't a great combo, are they?

[blindedfury]

It might be freezing and Academia might be mostly covered in snow, but Yuuri is nothing if not stubborn and he's still keeping up his meditation schedule on one of the rooftops high enough to not be buried under snowfall. The plant draped around his neck can't feel cold, thankfully, and the egg in his arms is warming them both a little...but then, Yuuri would rather it didn't.

He's had this thing for months now, ever since he first got here. He'd ignored it a bit at the start, sure, but he'd known it wouldn't hatch. Not with his powers like they were. But he's felt himself gaining more and more control. He can walk in the forest now without half the animals trying to murder him or each other. That constant buzz of furious insects that used to follow him everywhere has died down, even before the snow probably killed them all. And he's been meditating with that egg every day.

And yet. It still sits there, doing nothing but feeling warm under his hands. It's pissing him off.

Am I not good enough to keep control?

He's silent, but his expression is a deep grimace, and his eyes are screwed shut. It won't take much to shunt him over the edge, at this point...

Comments

[sakatree]

Hmnnn..?

Did he...see something? Hear something? Maybe..?

Perhaps not. The plant merely sits and curls, clinging like a cloak. The egg however...

'scared...'

'...scared of...' There is a strong feeling of 'rejection' from the egg, of fear alongside it. It's not what the egg feels for Yuuri of course...

But it's what it fears itself.

[blindedfury]

Yuuri isn't great at parsing the difference between those two things, though, and he hisses and opens his eyes. He's been trying. He has. He's never been good at being openly affectionate, but he's at least been taking the egg with him more and more recently. And yet the thing's still afraid of him.

He gets to his feet with a very sudden and jerky motion. Why the hell is he out here in this, trying to control himself, if it's not even worth doing...?

[sakatree]

"KrsSSSSSSFFFF-" Well congrats on that motion, you woke the plant. "Whyyyyy isss ittt movvinggggggggg...????" the zombie grumbles, half growling under its breath.

And in 'memory'-- 'dontgo'

[blindedfury]

Yuuri's tone isn't much better, when he responds.

"It's useless being out here. I'm going in."

Despite the fact that, as you probably would have noticed by now, Yuuri's always out here doing this for exactly an hour even despite the weather, and it's been ten minutes at best.

Pointless...even if I try, I'm still hated...

It's not something he'd ever say out loud, but there's a hell of a lot of resent bubbling under that 'secret'. And maybe a bit of loneliness.

[sakatree]

"HhhHAaaaaateeeeee...?" The vine one almost sounds worried.

"...Wweeeee.... Weeeeee dooonnnnttt hateeeee usssssssss..." And yet the worry lingers. It's not a reassuring statement. It's...perhaps even fearful.

'there's no one, there's no one...don't go...'

[blindedfury]

But to Yuuri, it sounds like you're trying to comfort him, just by the words. And with the pit in his stomach right now, 'there's no one' is sounding to him more like you're with him because there are no other options.

The plant double's about to feel a violent spasming motion. Yuuri's trying to throw you off for the first time in a while.

"The only reason you don't hate me is because nobody else will take you!" he spits. It's a low blow and he knows it, but he can't bring himself to care right now.

[sakatree]

"KREAAAAAAAAAAH-"

Whatever sound escapes his mouth is entirely inhuman as he tightens his grip, the rest of him flailing with the motion. Fear floods the air--fear, fear and more fear--

'Dontgodon'tgo--' (He'd been searching and searching and searching I would take even the useless duelists that I sealed into cards searching searching there was no one no one no one--)

[blindedfury]

He's right, you're only clinging to him because you're afraid, he'd never stoop that low, never--

"Get off, you pathetic creature!"

If you're stunned enough by that statement, he's definitely digging his hands under your arms to hurl you away into the snow. If not...then his hand might be going somewhere else, to deactivate the thing that gives you form.

[sakatree]

"RREEEEHHHHAAAAAAAAAA--"

Two things happen in that moment. First he clings tighter. Then by extension he feels where your hand is moving--

Immediately he snatches at that instead. His grip shifts-- (alonealonealonealonealone-) --it goes after the device (letmeoutletmeoutletmeout-)...

And the motion leaves his hold loose enough to toss him off, letting him tumble screaming down to the ground below, the snow having been cleared earlier for the sake of the plants in the garden.

[ineverwantedthis]

Take anyone? Awww... sweet baby... Rejected plant, tiny blossom...

Himika comes out of the shadows and she smiles, watching Yuuri with his egg. She's so tempted to take him... but instead she picks up her staff and goes to find the plant. It's easy... it has her hero's soul, after all.

"Are you scared? Of being all alone?"

[sakatree]

That voice...where is that voice...

"WwwwWHOOoooooo..." He doesn't recognize it, this voice...

How strange. He turns, leaves hiding his form. "...WWWWwwhhoooooo..."

[ineverwantedthis]

"I'm Himika, and you're who I've been looking for. Awwww... look at you. You're so cold. They abandoned you, didn't they? You precious baby..." She kneels down and picks him up.

[sakatree]

"KkkKKKiiiiiilllll.... kKKKKiiilllllleddd ussssssss.... it trrrriiiiieeedddd..."

The creature does not fight being picked up--it's warmth after all, and its vines try to pierce to no avail. "MmmMMiiiinnnneeeee...?"

...

"Ooouuuuuurrrrsssss...?"

[ineverwantedthis]

"Well... no one will hurt you again. Not under my watch." She holds him to her chest like she would hold a baby and smile softly.

"Come on... let me see your face, darling."

[sakatree]

His face? Sureeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. He's not looking in any direction--not with one eye hanging from the socket, and the other likely blind after all. Ahhhh yes.

Corpses.

[ineverwantedthis]

She smiles and kisses his forehead. "Shall I bring you home? Somewhere nice and warm? I'll make sure you get whatever you need, darling."

[sakatree]

"WWwwwwaaaaarrrrmmmmm..." Clinging. He's going to cling more, holding tight to his card. "Wwwwarrrrrrrrmmmmmmm...forrrrrr usssssssss...."

[blindedfury]

It takes a little while for Yuuri to calm himself right down again, and now he's back in his room, one hand rested rather absently against the warm egg in his sheets. Stupid of him, an insult to his training, to have let his own problems spill over into how he dealt with things...

Much as he wouldn't admit it, he's somewhat worried about his double, but he knows it's not likely the plant's coming back after that. He's alone again, then, until the egg hatches. If the egg hatches.

He'll just pretend that emptiness in his gut is hunger and nothing else.

[sakatree]

He doesn't have long to pretend.

Something is shaking the building. Something is covering every window and every door, and something is threatening to quake the very ground beneath it. Something is coming.

And that much is clear.

[blindedfury]

Oh, Yuuri, you pissed off the wrong plant...

He leaps off the bed and to attention as soon as he feels the shaking, and his first priority is getting the hell out of his room - after shunting the egg under his pillow and out of sight. Whatever this is, it's probably aiming for him, so he can draw it away, perhaps...

He's halfway out the door to his room within about five seconds. He can't fight whatever this is in here, but maybe if he can make it to the garden, he stands a chance.

[sakatree]

That would imply it was in there at all. It's not inside. Not yet.

In fact if it doesn't need to be inside then all the better. When he exits into the garden it'll be into a 'cavern' of wisteria, a lump at the far end of it.

And these are real.

The plants, the scent...

It's all real.

"TRAAAAAITOR...."

[blindedfury]

...Oh. Shit.

He's out of the door before the subconscious urge to turn back now hits - his mind parsed what this was, who this was, before he could catch up, but as soon as he realises, his face betrays a little fear. Backing up against the door, his eyes dart around, looking for some gap in the blanket of wisteria - live wisteria, the scent is telling him, and for a moment his mind jumps back to whatever his double tried to do to him when they first met.

"...Double. I don't suppose apologising will do me any good."

His voice isn't fearful, but he still sounds cautious. He knows he's outmatched, but he doubts he'll get out of this without a fight...if he gets out of it at all.

[sakatree]

"Killlllledddd usssss...." The plants shuffle, and perhaps there now, there, a gap near the other door--

"kIILLLED USS... LET USSS PAYYY THEMMM BAAAAAACK-"

[blindedfury]

...Yeah, okay, so he's probably not getting out of this alive.

He catches sight of that gap, and his immediate thought is that if these are his double's plants, they do his double's bidding - there is no way that gap isn't intentional. It has to be a trap, logically. But after one last look around at the cavern of plants, he pushes himself off the door and dives for it.

Better to be killed trying to make it out than bailed up against a door.

[sakatree]

It wasn't, actually.

Even so, a vine comes from behind and spears. It bores directly through an ages old wound and latches, pulling the teen rudely back to slam them against a thick wall of plantlife.

"OURSSSS.... WAS OURSSSSSS, TRAITORRRRRR..." THe figure comes near, a looming mass of flora and vine, swaying almost like a serpent. "USsseeEEElleesssssss...uuUSSSEEEELeleesssssss..."