#v:conceit

[passeris]

How long had he been following her...? How long had he been there and she not know? Was it just now? Or had he been watching her for days?

Paranoia rising to bubble beneath her skin, Kaya felt her branch of sin rushing in her veins as she forced herself into a semblance of calm. Breathing a brief sigh of relief as she rounded the corner just out of his sight, she stopped and turned, waiting for him to follow her only to be suddenly faced with his prey.

He was taller than she, but Kaya was undaunted; intimidation was in her blood by now--Senji had seen to that. So, flicking up the blades on the thumb rings the Crow had given her when he'd lost his arm, her tone was as cool and collected as her stare.

Unnerve them, that was the first step.

"Why are you following me?"

@vnguard

[passeris]

Break Me ( toto 🐦 )

Break Me: I will write an angsty drabble about our characters.

Kaya could hear him moving through the floor, thrashing as the terrors came, the rest of the dorm wondered who owned the name he screamed at night but Kaya knew.

Kaya knew the monster that plagued the Mockingbird. A monster in human flesh. The designer of Wonderland.

Ṙ̷̡͍̙̣̖̾i̴͕̯͊̅̽̑͋͠ͅn̶̡̗̝̭̖͍̣̖͖̾i̸͇̬̯͇̮̼̘͇̿́͆̈́̏̄c̵̡̘͕͉̱͖̠̫͐͋̃̀̆ͅḧ̶͚̙̯̮͎̲́͜ͅi̷͇̙͈̫͖͑̌̋̽̎͘͘̚r̵̹̗̹͕͈̯̄̑̽͝ő̴̭̣̩̻͕̖̰͛ ̶͕̟͛͆Ḥ̶̡̧͙̼͎̫͓̃͒̈́̾̐͐̃͝a̸̳̻̔̉̒͊ͅg̶̦̪͌̈́͂̓͘͠ͅi̶̤͑̒͜͠r̵͓̜̜̎̎̎͐̂̀̊͗̕͠e̵̢̨̧͎̭̙̭̮͈̗͊

Out of all of the Deadmen, Toto may have had the worst fate of them all. True none of them had become unscathed but Toto had done it all right! He’d become the strongest Deadman, the very top of the Carnival Corpse, only to have Hagire’s consciousness forced into his body and his own suppressed.

Hagire had then run amok, he’d destroyed everything he’d built and had nearly destroyed Toto and the rest of the Deadmen along with it. He’d drained Toto of nearly all of his ichor, lost an arm and a leg, and had murdered the one person that Toto had cared about.

All in the name of quantifying L O V E.

Yes, Toto definitely had it worse than the rest of them.

Swinging her legs over the side of her bed with a sigh, the Sparrow made her way to the floor below where the boys slept. Unsurprisingly there was a crowd gathering, most of them confused or concerned–though some were also irritated–wondering if they should have gotten a teacher.

“Outta tha way” The snapped order seemed to take some of them by surprise because–to her surprise–they obeyed.

The blood curdling screams raised exponentially in volume when she parted the door from it’s frame; echoing through the hallways and surely waking any other soul lucky enough to have been able to sleep through them before. She cringed. But they weren’t enough to stop her from entering the room and closing the door behind her.

His screams echoed through the room, almost painful to hear as she made her way to where he thrashed on the bed. Waking him was–more or less–an exercise in futility, he would either wake on his own or ease back into sleep without waking. All she could do was soothe him, so that’s what she did.

Getting onto the bed, she eased his head up and set it across her knees, doing her best to pet his hair as he continued to fight his internal demons.

“He’s not here.” She told him softly, “Hagire is dead, he can’t hurt you anymore.” Over and over she repeated this, not really knowing if it were REALLY true, but saying it anyway.

More than once he scratched her, at one point he even bit her hard enough to draw blood, but when the teacher came into the room some fifteen minutes later, he’d calmed considerably. His screams had died down to almost pained moans as she stroked his hair and muttered reassurances that she doubted he could really hear. They would have some explaining in the morning, but for now she would do what needed to be done.

[passeris]

Continued from this for @quirkbleed

It struck her as a strange thing to ask, probably because no one had asked her such a question in quite a while. Usually because they knew, they'd watched it being shed. But things were different now.

"Probably" her admission came as she considered the smear.

"I can't control all of it all the time..."

[passeris]

"Would you just fuckin' stop?!" He was trying to help her, her home room teacher had likely come to him for some assistance with the volatile young woman but she didn't WANT his help. She didn't want anyone's help! Not when they'd all failed her so completely when she'd needed them most.

"Th' fuck do you think you know about me, huh?" Hands shaking, she glared up at the frail figure of her childhood hero.

"You know my parents are dead? Do you know how they died? Or how hard I studied to get into this school just to make them proud?" She advanced on him, taking out all the anger she'd stored up over the years.

"Do you know about my record? Not many students here have been to prison right? Wrongfully convicted of murder and shipped off to Deadman Wonderland to sit on death row. Though sitting isnt' really what I would call it. See, Deadman Wonderland had a secret, a whole block of favorite freaks that they set up to fight and where the fuck were heroes like you?" Tears stung her eyes and her voice cracked as she did her best to keep her cool; but it was a losing battle.

"You stand there and smile and expect me to just accept the bullshit yer spoutin'. But where the fuck were you when I was strapped to a table having my guts carved out after one of those fights just because I wasn't the winner?" Tears cut hot paths as the root of her anger came out as a question that she doubted would be answered.

[passeris]

Continued for @bakvhatsv from this

Kaya snorted.

She'd seen his kind before, cocky, egotistical; the kind of people who didn't know exactly where they fit in the food chain but assumed they were near the top. People like him didn't last in Deadman Wonderland--well, not in G block anyway--it was the kind of place where if you got full of yourself and thought you'd won, you'd probably already lost. It was one of the lessons that Granny Miyako had made sure she learned quickly--

Never assume that you're better than your opponent, take every fight seriously or you're likely to lose no matter how good you might be.

"Yer in class 1-A right?" Her arms crossed, "Not sounding much like a hero, are ya?"

[passeris]

👉 / nonverbal meme c:

Non-Verbal Prompts || Accepting

It was three in the morning and Kaya couldn't sleep. At first she'd thought to stay in her room, not wanting to explain why she was wandering around in the middle of the night when she had class in the morning.  But that caution had been thrown to the wind around one am and now she was making her way around the kitchen with a mop after having scrubbed every other surface to a shine.

She hadn't heard him coming. Engrossed in the music streaming through her earphones, the usually reserved Sparrow had obliviously bopped along with the beat of her music while he stood there for who knew how long. Her guard had dropped for those few precious moments until--

It wasn't his words that had caught her attention--she couldn't hear them--instead it was his movement that drew violet hues up to catch him. Jumping half a mile once her brain had processed that there was someone besides herself there--someone whom had caught her amidst her almost nightly cleaning routine--she jumped half a mile and promptly slipped on the still wet floor.

Feet deserting her, she dropped the mop, landing firmly on her rear and hitting her head on the counter hard enough to knock out one of her earphones. This time she heard him, her hands finding the back of her head to hold while she groaned her discomfort.

"Sorry, I was looking for something to drink..." It wasn't really a question but Kaya still pointed instinctively to the fridge as if to tell him to look there. Thankfully, the side of the floor he had to walk on she hadn't mopped yet; there would be no slipping or falling for him.

[passeris]

@miku-bnha

It was the restriction that did it, the way he had tied her down that had switched her from defense to offense. Because it brought back memories that she’d rather have left locked away; memories of a table and pain and loss. In that instant she was back in that place and that familiar choice was before her again.

{ FIGHT or DIE }

He likely didn’t even know what he’d done, why she was wrenching and thrashing before finally sinking her teeth into her tongue to give her branch of sin an escape. Not enough to fight yet but more than enough to free her as a razor blade like shield formed and she sent it slicing through his tape and her own arm.

And that was all it took, blood from her arm jumped to life, seven or eight larger shields formed around her. Months of repression taking the edge off years of practice as they spun around her–slicing through the restraint holding her other arm as they went–before she took off towards him.

Spinning as she got close, she drew all of her shields in a line behind her extended bloody arm; a proverbial scythe ready to come down on her enemy that didn’t make contact. Instead they sliced into the concrete at his feet, sequential blades splattering into a bloody pool as she released her control on them.

She’d thought that she would be okay, it was just supposed to be a friendly sparring match between classes; she wasn’t even going to USE her branch of sin but–

This was why she’d not joined the hero course, there was something wrong with her, the carnival had left many a mark, not all of them physical.

“Sorry…but I’m done, I should go…” And without a word she made her way out of bounds, Midnights announcement of her forfeit falling on deaf ears as more than a few stunned sets of eyes watched the Sparrow leave.

The cool interior of the stadium brought little relief though. True she was no longer being stared at--Senji would probably find her later though--but now she was alone with herself. Adrenaline subsiding, her knees all but gave out and she dropped to the floor; the gash on her arm no longer bleeding thanks to her advanced healing.

"Damn it" Her words came with tears that cut hot streaks down sallow cheeks. She'd thought that she was over this--that she was STRONGER than this!

Apparently not.

[passeris]

“they don’t really tell me much.” ( toto 🐦 )

“Can’t imagine why…” The words dripped sarcastically from her lips as they sat across from one another outside the classroom; waiting to be reprimanded for defying the teachers and refusing to give a good reason why.

Though even if she HAD given the reason, they probably would have still been at least reprimanded.

Their conversation fell flat and another few moments of silence passed before Kaya couldn’t stand it.

“What–…What happened at Wonderland…do you ever have nightmares?” What was she saying? This was the Mockingbird, could he have even have felt remorse she doubted he would have for the lives he’d taken in defense of his own.

But he’d been on the table as much as the rest of them, surely he couldn’t have been okay after that…could he? It wasn’t just her…was it?

But what if it was? She felt self conscious now, and she directed her gaze to the floor, trying to ignore the way his aurelian eyes landed on her.

“Nevermind...”