Inbox (Velvet Room DR)

[seekerofjustice]

Akechi doesn't seem to be present at the moment, but you can hear his voicemail soon enough.

"Hello, this is Goro Akechi. It seems like I have my hands full at the moment, so please leave a message. I'll respond as soon as possible."

It's only then that you hear the beep for your message to go through...

--

Perhaps text would work better instead? It seems like he's entirely open to messages...

(Please specify which!)

Contacts:

Akira Kurusu: thedevilinyourdetails
Makoto Yuki: burnmydreadbabe
Falcon: gorobo
Crow: fogbornphantom

Comments

thru text

[linkclickakira]

[Akira makes sure to use his second phone for this, not wanting to be narrowed down by Dove just yet since he's the only one who has his number]

[seekerofjustice]

Pancakes? I'm afraid I don't understand the joke here. Could you elaborate?

[linkclickakira]

:(
𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚓𝚘𝚔𝚎.

[seekerofjustice]

Oh! In that case, I apologize for not understanding. Truth be told, I quite enjoy pancakes. They're very delicious.

[linkclickakira]

...𝚠𝚘𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚎 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚋𝚊𝚍. 𝚒 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚊 𝚌𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚓𝚘𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚑𝚊
𝚍𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚖𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚖𝚎 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚓𝚞𝚍𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚛 ;)

[seekerofjustice]

Please, don't feel bad. This just means I have a mystery to solve, is all.

Though to think such a joke would make someone hate pancakes. Strange...

[thedevilinyourdetails]

[ Dove hears a rattling, knocking sound on his balcony window. ]

hhbhhheeeeeeyyh
wheres yuor
door knov
door not workibg :(

[ Outside, on his balcony, is a very disoriented Spades attempting to open the door by grabbing and twisting the handle like a regular doorknob. As it's a sliding door, this obviously isn't working out for him, and the large frown on his curl-obscured face only makes it more apparent. ]

[seekerofjustice]

Dove isn't particularly busy when he hears the ping on his phone... or the rattling at his balcony. He cautiously steps towards the balcony, though his eyes glance quickly at the message on his phone as he does so...

...Only to see that it's a message from Akira. Something about the door not working? That's strange, the doorknob should be just--

Wait. Wait. He's not... Surely he's not.

Dove quickly snaps his head up towards the balcony again, moving with a much quicker pace towards it, and shifting the curtain to reveal the friend in question.

His eyes widen as he fumbles to open the door, staring up at Akira with so many questions rolling around in his head... but first, thing's first.

"Akira! How did you-- no, never mind. That's not important."

Akira's face is a bit hard to see given the angle, but he seems very disoriented... Dove can't help but be concerned, but he makes way for Akira to step on in.

"Please, come in... You clearly need a place to sit down."

He's also willing to support Akira to the couch if he needs it.

[thedevilinyourdetails]

Spades jumps a bit. Doors are supposed to open, not slide...he glares at the door while stepping inside. "Thank you."

And then his foot. Misses? He puts his foot down a couple times but he can't-- find the ground? Where is it--? Where'd it go?

He stares at the ground until it lets him put his foot down. Thank you. Geez.

In the meanwhile... "I'd love a place to sit down." Both of his hands are deathgripping Dove's shirt, so he. Uh. Stops that. "Safety. Is good. Dove is safety...yes."

[seekerofjustice]

It's only becoming more apparent that Akira is very out of sorts... The couch isn't far away, thankfully, and Dove hardly minds if Akira needs to latch onto him. The death grip on his shirt has barely even registered, given the situation.

"Feel free to lean on me if you need to. It's just over there... Are you--"

He stops as Akira mentiosn the idea of safety. Of Dove apparently being such. It perplexes him, and yet he feels a resolve build up within him.

"...I'll make certain you're safe here, Akira. You have my word. Let's step inside, shall we?"

And so, while making sure Akira is ready to move forward, he begins trying to lead them both towards the couch. He's adjusting his pace to Akira's own.

[thedevilinyourdetails]

Akira perks up. "Dove is safety. Yes." A deep sigh of relief. He takes a few cautious steps forward, keeping his eyes staring into the ground to make sure it doesn't move again, leaning into Dove.

[seekerofjustice]

They take careful steps, and Dove takes the time to help keep Akira stable as they go.

Easy... Just a few more steps, and it isn't long before both Dove manages to get Akira in front of the couch.

"Here we are. How are you feeling, Akira? Is there anything else I can do for you?"

He wants to make certain of that before anything else. After that, then... well, maybe he can figure out a bit more about what's going on once Akira's able to sit and possibly clear his head a bit.

[thedevilinyourdetails]

Akira simply flops on the couch with a groan. "Pain..."

[seekerofjustice]

Pain... Definitely not a good sign. Dove sits beside him, the worry of his face a bit more plain.

"What happened? This isn't something as simple as a normal injury... Are you going to be all right?"

He's never seen Akira like this. Perhaps he's seen Akira somewhat shaken, but to see him in pain and so out of it, it's so concerning... What should he do?

"Could you tell me what happened? If something did this to you, then..."

[thedevilinyourdetails]

"I uhhhhhh." Akira blinks up at the ceiling. "You are only human, Akira." The words are an eerily-accurate mimicry of Akechi's voice. "Many things...purpleass fleamonger...happened."

[seekerofjustice]

Dove is taken aback by what sounds like his own voice speaking when Akira opens his mouth. It's not the same tone as he's used to, but he's heard a similar tone in the other versions of himself... Familiar, and yet...

"...That voice..."

...He has a strange feeling about that voice, but it falls to the wayside as Akira continues speaking in his normal voice.

Needless to say, Dove is now trying to parse exactly what that part even means.

"...'Purpleass fleamonger'? I'm afraid I don't quite understand."

Do the words actually correlate to the culprit, or are they more disorientation? Or perhaps a combination of both?

"Are you able to elaborate further?"

[thedevilinyourdetails]

"The Bitch." He waves a hand. "The-- evil guy. Bleugh. His soul tastes like lies rolled in the clearance bin of 777. Drudged."

Across his face, faint smudges of black goop still linger, like he was hastily wiping it off.

"Chewing. Bitten off...can't not not swallow."

[seekerofjustice]

The only thing Dove can think of is...

"...Ken Amada. You're saying you got a glimpse into his soul?"

Dove's eyes zone in on the black smudges, flashes of something before his eyes strike him. Faces... Faces covered in black sludge... They were... All of them victims of--

...No. He doesn't let himself linger on that when Akira is in front of him, suffering like this.

"No, more accurately... You took it in, and this is the aftermath...?"

[thedevilinyourdetails]

"Couldn't eat me to pay that stuff," he winces, mouth working. "Blegh. Blegh, blegh, blegh. My brain...hurts."

His hand that was just doing. Something. Reaches out to Dove. "You're in pain too, yeah? We can be in pain together."

[seekerofjustice]

Dove can't help but stare at the hand when it's held out to him... but then he hears Akira. His eyes lift back up to look at him, and...

...'Be in pain together'... Is that how it works? When someone feels pain, do they share it with someone else? Admittedly, he's still not entirely sure, but he has been hurting a great deal lately.

He's felt so, so alone. And trapped. And lost. And... he's not even sure.

...But Akira's in pain, too. He needs someone, just like Dove does. He's not going to leave him there alone, suffering that pain by himself...

Dove finds it paradoxical that he smiles as he takes Akira's hand. Never mind that his spirit has been wavering more and more as time has passed, that his weakness has proven a liability on all fronts, that his Ren is only falling deeper into the hole of Maruki's curse.

But holding Akira's hand... Well, the burden feels just a bit easier to face. Despite it all, they're both still here.

"...You're right. We can. Thank you, Akira. For as long as you need, I'll be here."

Despite the smile, there is a certain sadness in his eyes. He feels called out, all too seen.

[thedevilinyourdetails]

There's a lucidity somewhere in Akira's pain-filled eyes, squeezing Dove's hand in kind. "Pain is awful and evil and mean and stupid. You aren't. You're Akechi. You're Dove."

Wiggling, he sits up a bit on the couch, trying to give Dove some room. "Sit?" He tries a classic devil-may-care smirk, but it comes out pretty silly-looking.

[seekerofjustice]

It really is, isn't it? Pain is horrible, and he still doesn't entirely know how it feels. It's important to be able to feel it, but... there's still some part of him that wishes it wasn't.

But Dove squeezes Akira's hand as he as goes to take a seat, offering a smile of his own as he sees the silly-looking smirk on Akira's face.

"Yes, thank you..."

He thinks on what Akira said, rotating it around in his mind before speaking again.

"Pain truly is an awful thing, isn't it? It's certainly not my preference, now having experienced it myself."

A little bit of a lighthearted lilt to his tone at the end there, a slight attempt at a joke.

[thedevilinyourdetails]

"Pain is ass." Akira groans. "But. I guess."

He pitches his voice again, shifting into a copy of his Akechi's. "Pain is proof that you are alive. Feel it."

He lays his head on Dove's shoulder. "Don't have to feel it alone. And that's something."

His phone is loud. Mghhhhh.

[seekerofjustice]

Ah, that voice so much like his own has called him out. Not that he can blame it.

"I can't deny that. Difficult as it is to admit it, it's another truth one must face."

And Akira's right. It really is easier to face it with someone beside you. If he was entirely alone on this, then...

Thankfully, that thought is cut off by Akira resting his head on Dove's shoulder. Dove fully allows it, relaxing a bit as he settles more into his seat.

"It is--"

He stops, hearing the sudden buzzing of Akira's phone. Dove shifts to slowly look at him, regretfully having to inform him...

"...It seems your phone is ringing."

An unfortunate fact.

[thedevilinyourdetails]

"Mnnnh. It's too loud." He is in paaaaaain. He tries to fish it out. Of his pocket.