lempereur | IC Contact; MoM

[ This is nothing compared to...casinos, cruise ships, and banks. He doesn't even bother with the disguise. Yusuke scales the building in a few short leaps, without a sound, until he pokes his head in and taps the window frame. ]

He's in bed?

[Yuri's lounging in bed, tapping away at some kind of phone game. He doesn't look that great; pale and run down, hair mussed, bags under his eyes...

He looks up when Yusuke peers in, then glances at the door of his room and shrugs.]

In bed, but he's probably not sleeping either. ...Katsuki hasn't come back yet. His fiance. He's taking it hard.

[ Yusuke's face drops, and he climbs through the window carefully, making sure not to knock anything over. ]

How long has he been gone?

[There's not much right next to the window, at least. Just a cat's climbing tower complete with a sleepy himalayan watching him from the very top of it.]

Since the coffee shop, at least.

...you only left for a couple of days.

[ Oh hi kitty! Yusuke will make sure he gets some quality head scratching before he sits down on the corner of the bed opposite Yuri. ]

Will he be alright? Will you?

[ ...he might not have been so cold towards him earlier, if he'd known. ]

[Yuri frowns uncertainly, the look heavy with worry.]

I don't know. I'll be okay, [very believable with the way he looks] but Viktor's... The only time he eats is when I make him, and he's barely left his room at all.

[ I mean. Yusuke usually doesn't eat until someone reminds him to. And he's mostly fine! ]

Is this a bad time?

[He sets his phone down and shakes his head sharply.]

I called you over here. It's fine.

[ For a moment, the only sound out of Yusuke is that of a full bodied sigh, one he is focused on fully, as if emptying his lungs will take the worry out with it. But it can't, of course, the conversation with Viktor that morning is still weighing heavy on his mind.

He had made it sound like Yuri knew everything, but he didn't. Not because the artist was keeping anything from him, not on purpose, it just...hadn't come up. Things were hectic, everyone was busy and upset and pissed off. But it really can't wait any longer, he knows it's only a matter of time before Akira broaches the subject, and they both need to know what the answer is when he does. ]

If you're sure, then we need to talk about the Phantom Thieves. I know that you have a lot to deal with right now, but I haven't any idea when, or if, things are going to get easier. You have already been involved. Do you want to continue?

[That sigh is concerning, and the question doesn't do anything to soothe him. The lead up sounded more than a little ominous. Could he really deal with more right now? It was already taking so much energy just to keep on top of looking after Viktor now...

He makes a low, dull sound like a tired groan and scrubs a hand over his face to wake himself up.]

With the thieves...? Or what? Are you really doing much here right now?

Not yet. Between the others getting settled in, and everything with Adachi, there hasn't been time.

[ A finger curls around his hair, as he tries, and fails, to suppress a yawn. This is serious, and he knows that, but damn if he isn't tired, too. ]

Now, things are not perfect, but it's time. We want to continue our work back home. The longer we do nothing, the longer wicked people thrive. I think if it is something you wanted, and you are comfortable with, you could make a difference. At the very least, I have to explain it all to you. I don't wish for there to be any secrets.

[ Well, maybe just one. ]

I... I mean, yeah, I've been thinking about it... That's why I'm trying to learn about my powers now. But I don't know...

[He didn't actually think he was good enough to make a difference though, much less get...scouted? Is that what was happening now?]

Do you really want to explain it right now? You seem kind of tired.

I am sure. I shouldn't have waited this long, we gave you a mask and a code name, but no idea what you were getting into. That was wrong, but with everything else going on...I didn't want to burden you with everything at once, especially after bringing up Madarame.

[ Scouting...not really. This is more than that, there are so many strong and capable people here side eying authority and wanting to help. They had their pick, if they were recruiting based on ability. This is a gesture of trust, from Yusuke to Yuri, about the Phantom Thieves, and yet separate from them. He wants him to know the full story, and hopes that he will still understand him once he hears it. ]

It is more strange and involved than just crime fighting. Our goal was, and still is, to steal the hearts of the corrupt who would seek to hurt others.

You...steal hearts?

[Out of all the scenarios he might have thought he'd hear, that was the last. It sounds like something out of some trashy romance novel Georgi kept stashed in his room. How the hell did a bunch of weird soul monsters figure into that?]

What... How does stealing hearts do anything? What does that mean?

You could call it stealing, you could call it changing. The terminology isn't important.

I told you about Madarame, at least partially. He watched my mother die so that he could steal her portrait and claim it as his own, and he became famous around the world. He adopted me to keep me close, so that I wouldn't ask questions. He raised me, as if I were his own, which is why I stayed when he began showing off my work under his own name. I was not the first. The older pupils I grew up with were blacklisted and thrown aside as soon as they were no longer useful to him. Shortly before I escaped, one of them killed himself.

[ He stops, taking a breath. His only father figure had been responsible for the deaths of two people - that he knew about. So many students had come and gone from Madarame's place over the years. As the last, and the youngest, Yusuke knew there was a possibility that he would never know them all. ]

I escaped because of the Phantom Thieves. The cognitive realm - humanity's collective unconsciousness - we call it the Metaverse. When one's heart becomes distorted by desires so wicked and extreme, as Madarame's did, they carve out a piece of that other world for themselves. A palace. And somewhere inside it, there is a treasure, a symbol of the evil inside them, something that encourages them to behave that way. In his case, it was my mother's painting. If we go inside, and steal the treasure from their consciousness, removing the source of their greed, their hearts are changed. By force. He confessed his crimes, all of them, on live television.

[ tl;dr we invade bad guys' minds and force them to be good!

Throughout his spiel, he watches Yuri intently for a reaction. He's pretty sure that he'll understand, but out of all the people here he's told (which is now 3), he needs him to understand more than anyone. He's sure in his convictions, and nobody in this world or any other would change that, but he still cares, deeply, about what Yuri thinks of him. ]

[Saying that it's a lot to take in is an understatement. It's hard enough to get past the story about Madarame—the man had just watched a woman die? How was that any different from outright murder?! The ache in his chest, the one that hasn't left since he found out about Adachi and Viktor, sharpens painfully the more Yusuke explains. Yuri shifts when he pauses, reaching towards him almost like he might take his hand, but uncertainty stops him. It might be too familiar, he thinks.

So instead, he scoots close enough to bump shoulders with him, offering what little quiet comfort he can while Yusuke goes on to explain the rest. His brow furrows as he listens, and he chews uneasily at his lower lip while he takes it all in.

It sounds insane, like something out of a bizarre fever dream. Stealing—what. Soul trinkets? To change people? If they were anywhere but this world he'd dismiss it out of hand, but they're not. They're here where he can become a tiger, and Viktor is practically a siren, and people have terrifying soul monsters. So this is real. Changing...who people are is real. And if they're only trying to keep innocent people from being made into victims, then...]

So...you're stopping bad guys permanently. But without hurting them? They just stop fucking over innocent people?

[ What Madarame did wasn't any different from outright murder, at least as far as Yusuke was concerned. He could have helped her, but made a conscious choice not to, so that he could be rich and famous. His mentor didn't make her sick, but it was just as bad.

His eyes flick down to Yuri's hand as soon as it moves, more than willing to take whatever gesture of comfort comes his way. Not that he really needs it, he's accepted this all as fact long ago and mostly moved on, Adachi picking at old woulds notwithstanding. The knowledge that he wants to provide Yusuke with that comfort is enough, the corner of his mouth twitches into the most subtle of smiles. He leans gently into his side instead, fingers drawing little swirls in the sheets between them. ]

It is permanent. Once we have taken that piece of them away, we can't put it back. But it does not hurt them, they don't even know how or when we did it, it's all in their mind. All they know is overwhelming guilt for their crimes.

[ He pauses again, scratching the back of his head. ]

However, a distorted version of them, the way they see themselves, guards the treasure. We have to fight them for it, and any security they put in our way, which usually takes the form of monsters, or demons. No human gets hurt in the real world, unless we kill them, in their own mind, which causes a complete mental shut down. We do not, and will not do that. That would be more of Akechi's style.

Good. I don't want anything to do with actually hurting people.

[But delving into their heads to make some strategic rearrangements sounds fine to him. Or at least preferable to letting murderers and other dangerous criminals run around unchecked.]

...I don't know how much help I'd really be, but I want to continue. I don't want to keep feeling helpless when it comes to monsters like that.

Edited 2017-06-25 03:33 (UTC)

[ Yusuke's smile breaks wider, relieved, not only that Yuri understood, but that he shared his feelings. He wants to shout with joy, and he would, if not for the fact that he had crawled in here through the window in the middle of the night. ]

There is no Metaverse here, so it will work differently. We all arrived with our specialty, myself with the cards, and Akira, as our leader, with this. We have to steal a physical item from the real world, and it will only change someone for a few days. Long enough to confess, which is the important part.

[Committing crimes in the real world, huh... There's a good chance that could land him in the public eye. It's not something he'd ever consider at home where there were too many things and people counting on him to keep skating, to keep making money. But here...]

I've never even tried to steal anything before, you know. ...but you and Viktor are still the only people who know I can become that cat. I'd make a good scout that way.

I haven't said anything to the others yet, but I was thinking the same thing. You can infiltrate smaller areas without suspicion, remain composed under pressure, and you have an unstoppable drive.

[ To hell with too familiar. Yusuke is taking his hand. It's nothing he hasn't done before, but it's different now, it isn't a gesture of comfort in a trying time so much as his joy spilling outward, unconcerned about how it looked. It's a lighter grip than last time, just barely tight enough to be read as... maybe not intimate, if the fingers being woven between Yusuke's belonged to someone who would bother to read into such things. ]

I admire all of that. I admire you, Yuri, and I want you to be with me. With us. When we continue.

[ A+ save, art boy. ]

He starts to say something, but the question dies in his throat when Yusuke takes his hand. It sends a warm and pleasant jolt of something up his arm, though he couldn't begin to guess at what. It feels nice, whatever it is.]

I—uh. I mean, yeah. I...want that too.

[ Yusuke feels like he's melting. Not in the blistering heat of defiance that Goemon instilled in him, but as if his heart and mind and hands and eyes and everything else are melded into one. He had always been so good at concealing his varied and often extreme emotions, but it was so much harder here, especially around Yuri. Every feeling, the good and the bad, seemed heightened by a situation more outrageous than the one he left, but none more than the overwhelming relief and just... joy he was feeling right now.

And all of that, all he is and has to give is focused on one person. It feels amazing, and it kind of hurts, but that ache is kind of beautiful, in its own way. ]

I'm glad. Don't be afraid, we will start with smaller targets, and I will protect you until your training has caught you up, or longer, if you will allow it.

[ Technically, he is still talking business, but it's soft and casual, too much effort going into decoding Yuri's expression to maintain much seriousness. He doesn't know what it is about that face, but it makes Yusuke want to do a whole lot more than hold hands, an urge he knows is untimely, so he buries it, deep. ]

[It's a little daunting to be the focus of all that emotion. It's hard to miss it, especially for Yuri who's spent a significant portion of his life learning to read emotions in the performances of his competition. The only problem is that this isn't a competition. This is the middle of the night, sitting on his bed holding hands with his friend that he snuck in through an open window.

There's an obvious explanation for what this is. He knows there is; can feel it looming in the back of the mind, setting his heart racing and drying out his mouth. Thankfully Yusuke chooses that moment to speak again and his train of thought derails entirely.]

—You can't protect me forever! [He tightens his hand around Yusuke's, focusing on him with an intense, determined frown.] The whole point of training me is so that I don't need to be protected all the time. I want to get good enough to protect you too. You and the rest of the Phantoms.

I can, and I will, to the best of my ability.

[ Completely unfazed by the defensive frowning, Yusuke maintains his smile. ]

I do the same for Futaba and Akira, as they do for me. It's a system of support, if you want to be part of that, even after you are capable on your own, you have to know when to let someone take a hit for you. Or when someone needs some sense slapped into them.

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