morality

Ma'am shock.

"Excuse you, I'm 17."

#nostargrudge #s'okay!

The only reason why Ryuko had used the past tense in reference to Ragyo’s sister was only on the assumption that this version of Ragyo mimicked the one she knew; the Ragyo that Ryuko had known had never mentioned a sister, and Satsuki had never mentioned having an aunt. Or even an uncle. Hell, Satsuki hadn’t really talked to her about the Kiryuin family at all, but in her defense, Ryuko had never cared to pry. She figured that that was a door to be opened at a later date, when the dust had settled and finally laid to rest.

“Sorry t’hear that,” Ryuko offered lamely, not knowing what to say in response. She’d always been terrible at comforting people… well, at least she thought she would be. She’d never really been given the occasion to comfort anyone when it came to this sort of thing. Ryuko had no idea what the girl in front of her had been through, anyway, so her shallow consolation probably would have come across as nothing more than a number of platitudes either way.

“…Yeah. I feel you there,” she continued softly, toeing some errant dirt off of her shoe. “Didn’t think I needed ‘em for a while there. But sometimes just bein’ in your head with yourself gets to be way too much to handle.”

Ryuko spoke from experience, and it colored her tone. Some far-off and lonely part of her prompted her to continue, though her mind felt disconnected from her words. “But sometimes… sometimes I kinda feel like… I dunno. Like I need t’be alone. Completely. Just ‘cause it’s all I’ve ever known, if that makes sense.”

The bespectacled girl closed her eyes, choosing not to say anything at Ryuko's understandable lament.

Underneath the forcefully added layers of thread that were inside her body, Ragyo had experienced all sorts of hurt. Defilement. There were times when she didn't want anyone around, hell, she's still trying to act normal whenever people gave her friendly elbow jabs. Compared to Ryuko, Ragyo was a complete monster already from the inside out.

Freudian excuses.

"...You're great just the way you are," Ragyo said, smiling as she opened her eyes to speak directly to the girl. "Never think otherwise. You're a thousand times better than me; I can feel it. Always....always stay close to your friends, even when you want to be alone at times. You'll....never know when they might go away."

She bit her lip.

"I made....lots of friends when I came back to school. I...want to protect them. With everything I have, I want to protect them, as much as they protected me."

*silently muses how different Ragyo is now compared to her future self*

Silently muses on why this guy is standing at the club entrance, not even saying anything.

Ryuko could tell that this Ragyo was trying to ease her mind in her own way, and she hated how desperate she was to meet her halfway. Part of her still yearned for a relationship with the woman that had been her mother; a relationship that didn’t involve killing each other or Life Fibers. Swallowing hard on the lump in her throat, Ryuko gave a shaky laugh in response to Ragyo’s words.

“I dunno. Never thought a’ my name that way,” she said uneasily, her face coloring with emotion in spite of herself in response to the compliment. Though she knew that it flew in the face of everything she’d been fighting for until just recently, Ryuko felt she could trust the stranger before her… Rather, she felt herself placing her trust with her, regardless of what Ryuko herself wanted.

“Y’had a sister?” she queried, her hands finding the edge of her skirt and twisting at the fabric. “R-Ragyo’s a plenty nice name. It suits you.”

Had was right. The girl was right on the mark. Ragyo looked down at her shoes, wondering whether this would be the path that she would still go through even if her sister was alive today.

"...I had a sister. She....passed away right after she was born. I don't even know who came first, so I don't know who's older or who's younger. We're....twins, you see."

The memory of her sister was like a cross for her to bear; a cross that she willingly brought upon herself. If Ragyo had died instead of her sister, wouldn't her parents be even happier? Wouldn't they be proud of her instead of exercising extreme parental neglect and the occasional abuse?

Ragyo laughed a little to herself. "You know, her memory is part of what kept me going so far. If it weren't for the Tailoring Club, I wouldn't have held myself up for long. It's really good...to have friends, you know? One can never be too alone."

#verirrten #[MY HEART]

blood-clamp

by へにょ

#fc #self

Ryuko’s gaze snapped back to Ragyo, eyes wide with apparent wonder. This exchange grew more and more mystifying by the second, and though she couldn’t begin to puzzle out what the hell was going on, she couldn’t deny that some small part of her was gnawing away at the corner of her mind, urging her to make some sort of connection with the stranger in front of her. This Ragyo wasn’t her mother, she knew that much. She could have been, in some different timeline or universe. But this wasn’t the Ragyo she knew, and in a lot of ways, it was relieving.

But in other ways, it was terribly sad. Something about this Ragyo was … different. Untainted. Ryuko wished that this was the Ragyo she had known from the beginning, though she knew nearly nothing about her. Her words worked against her jaw, a fist clenched as her eyebrows knit together in response to what the girl before her said, a wave of sentiment breaking over her.

This wasn’t her mother, no matter how badly she wanted her to be.

“…I don’t think y’will,” Ryuko replied, her own voice cracking in much the same way as Ragyo’s. “So… so I won’t.”

After a few seconds, Ryuko squared her shoulders. How the hell could she even begin to explain this? “I dunno what the hell’s goin’ on here, but. My name’s Ryuko. Ryuko Matoi. I don’t expect that t’sound familiar t’you at all, though.”

Ryuko.

That was the first name that she had keyed in for voice recognition at the Tailoring Club. That silly question Oogure had placed to make fun of the members, that silly mandatory question that everyone had to answer. 'What would you name your future child?'

It did sound familiar.

"....It's a beautiful name," Ragyo eventually said, smiling warmly at Ryuko. "I wish that I had your name, really. Mother did name my sister a nicer name, and she gave me this....weird one. I mean, come on, who would name their kid Ragyo?"

She laughed. Hopefully, Ryuko found that funny.

Cold dread settled in the pit of Ryuko’s gut as Ragyo spoke again. Had she been mistaken? Was this some sort of cosmic prank? Were it not for the way she wore her hair, the girl before her could have easily been the Ragyo Kiryuin Ryuko had known, albeit much younger and softer at the edges. The eyes were the same. The expressions were the same.

Yes, Ryuko knew she wasn’t wrong. So why did it seem like this Ragyo wasn’t a threat? “I don’t… think y’do,” Ryuko began slowly, chewing her lip and trying to organize her thoughts. “But. I think I know who you are. I dunno how or why, an’ for some reason I don’t think you’re the, uh, you that I knew.”

Fuck, that sounded ridiculous.

While it did sound ridiculous, Ragyo found herself believing the girl, much to her apparent horror.

Was it because the girl looked a bit like her? Did she remind her of someone? There were many possibilities that she could be some sort of relative, appearance wise, but Ragyo was pretty sure that she was never introduced to an extended family throughout her life.

The girl had the same will that she had; that same iron will that always supported her and never failed her even in the most trying of times. The infamous Kiryuin stubbornness, it seemed. Even if the girl didn't exhibit it, Ragyo could tell by the look in the girl's eyes.

She was scared.

Ragyo was scared.

"....I won't hurt you," was her first sentence. It was a default sentence that she would always say to others, right before she had formed the Tailoring Club that consisted of all her friends. "So please....

".....don't hurt me," she said, her voice cracking.

blood-clamp

by へにょ

#fc #self

nostargrudge

"Oh shit! I'm sorry! Did I forget your uniform order?"

#nostargrudge

The look of shock on the stranger’s face almost made Ryuko recoil in reconsideration, but the anger that flared in her gut overrode the impulse, color returning to her face in an angry flush. There was no way that this girl could have been who she said she was; the Ragyo that Ryuko had known had been tall and imposing, far from the mere waif of a girl that stood before her.

As their eyes met, Ryuko felt a chill run up her spine as the stranger repeated herself. There was something in the look that this Ragyo was giving her—perhaps it was in the way the corners of her eyes had narrowed, or maybe it was in the set of her jaw—that made the validity in her claim all the more inarguable. Ragyo’s conviction, strong as Ryuko’s own, pushed against her denial, steel against fire.

Blood pounding in her ears, Ryuko took a step back, breaking her gaze from the strangers. “You… can’t be. There’s no fuckin’ way,” she breathed. She was more than aware that without Senketsu or her rending scissor, she was as good as dead. Still, she turned her eyes back up to Ragyo’s, the anger in her expression evaporating in order to be replaced by something akin to confusion.

"I watched you die."

In an instant, it was as if they were in some sort of sappy television drama; it was always that way, wasn't it? The script-writers would always make some sort of tension with the same, familiar lines, even if they were altered in some way. The girl before her, however, felt familiar, and yet, not so familiar at the same time.

Ragyo had never met this girl in her life.

She could hear her folded Kamui trying to calm her down from her schoolbag--clearly, it was much too late. She was trying her best to keep calm, but what the girl said took her aback.

"You watched me....what? Excuse me, um....do I know you?"

Something hard caught Ryuko in the throat, forcing her to swallow and her hands to shake. The color drained from her face as she stared at this seemingly gentle girl before her, almost doe-like in her appearance, nearly the direct opposite of the image that the name “Ragyo Kiryuin” invoked. The rest of the stranger’s words seemed to fade into the air as Ryuko’s heart rate elevated, her expression a mixture of equal parts shock and fear.

“You’re fuckin’ with me,” she managed to choke, her face transforming into a visage of anger as quickly as her shock had settled in. “If this is a joke, it’s the shittiest one I’ve ever heard.” Curling her fingers into a fist, Ryuko grit her teeth, advancing towards the girl who called herself Ragyo. She hadn’t heard anything else that the stranger had said, let alone registered her friendly, markedly non-aggressive tone.

“Gonna ask you one more time. Who the fuck are you?”

Shock.

As far as she remembered, that indeed was her name. She didn't go by any other name, and she was starting to revel in the fact that she was someone who was important in a measly high school. It was better than nothing, anyways, but to hear this girl say her name as if it was a curse....

....it did make her angry.

Ragyo looked at the girl straight in the eyes; the girl did have such peculiar, beautiful eyes, and she wondered for half a second whether her poor, deceased sister might have had her eyes.

"I am Ragyo Kiryuin," she said clearly.

{ revelations } | closed

joyeusxe-archive-blog

▒ ❥ ▒ —- A finger flickered out, pallid legs bending down to scrutinize the worn fabric. With such the cerulean gaze, so intent, it almost seemed as though the girl was mentally dismantling the threads, string by string, in order to gauge the quality it held.

Such the coy flicker of the hand, she brushed the torn attire away, the visage of pity growing only stronger and stronger as the moment passed. Perhaps this ‘pity’ was true, or perhaps it was all a fraud; a regularity.

❝Oh geez, geez, truly what an unfortunate soul you are, all alone! This dress here, nada, nada, it won’t do at all! This flimsy fabric, disgusting.❞

But oh yes, she truly had some degree in faith in this girl; she could spot out such a budding hope as swiftly as she could spot the scratch upon fabric, indeed! Hands held out in front of that girl, threads taken into her fingers once more. Then, it was almost a supernatural phenomenon, but the ends steady met, slowly, ever so slowly but surely, forming the end of a sleeve.

❝But you can make your own dress, one of your very own, out of these~! It’ll be a wonderful outfit, one of your very own, the best one you”l owe!❞

#joyeusxe #omk i'm sorry this was late

If anything else, these threads were magical. They were the embodiment of everything perfect. Why hadn't she seen it before, the things that these threads could do? Why hadn't she appreciated them back when she was a fool?

It was fortunate that she didn't have the memories of a fool.

She could make a dress of her own; she could. No, she can. Ragyo has always had a passion for sewing up loose ends, transforming cloth into the most beautiful of clothes. If these threads gave her the opportunity to showcase her talents...

....then so be it.

Ryuko hadn’t recognized the girl standing before her, fiddling with her phone. She seemed like a bookwormish type, though Ryuko’s time at Honnouji had taught her not to label people based on their appearance. There was an air about the stranger that she couldn’t name or even begin to describe, and it intrigued her… though she wasn’t entirely sure why she had stopped walking just to stare at the newcomer.

At the girl’s words, a blush crept up to Ryuko’s cheeks, leaving her flustered at the fact that her staring had been noticed. “—-No. Just. Wonderin’ who y’were, I guess,” she stammered, mentally berating herself for losing her cool. Something about this girl made her nervous. But why?

#verirrten #my internet's shit skdjfh

Ragyo smiled; she had lots of reasons to smile lately, and to find that giving one simple smile for any given occasion certainly made her feel better.

"Bet you're new here," Ragyo laughed a little. "Mitoribashi High School's gonna close down at the end of the year, though. It'll be replaced by Honnouji Academy, but at any rate, welcome! I'm the head of the Tailoring Club, Ragyo Kiryuin. If you want any uniforms commissioned, you can always ask me or the members."

verirrten

She looked at her phone, browsing through her threads.

Ragyo was very particular when it came to her phone; she listed every single person on her contacts list by their first and last names, filled in their photos, placed fax numbers, house addresses as well as professions. There were a few outdated ones though: her father's and mother's phone numbers were invalid, since they were dead.

Putting away her phone, she looked up, expecting to see a clear, blue sky, but she was met with the sight of yet another person.

"O-Oh, um.....can I help you?" she asked meekly.

#verirrten #[i am so sorry javascript isn't working on me today orz]

zaanshin

Candies and pastries were like a traditional thing in the Sewing Club of Mitoribashi High School, since tea time was a treasured time when the members would stop their work just to eat.

The leader, Ragyo Kiryuin, nonchalantly took some tiny cakes and popped them in her mouth, waiting for the rest of the members as they were out buying more food. Her throat was still trying to get accustomed to food, but what could she do about the thread that was choking her from the inside?

She looked at the door, as if she had expected someone, but if it was a student asking for a uniform, she really did have to get up. She really should stop being so lazy.

Ragyo opened the door, then gave a bright smile. "Do you need anything?"

#zaanshin

symphonyregaliafinale

"Surely you must be joking. And you’re one to talk for someone outside of a standard Honnouji Academy uniform! Be grateful I’m not the chairperson of the Disciplinary Committee or else you can rest assured you’d be read the riot act; regardless of how well dressed you are." The rosette would reach up and grab the brim of her her shako as she sized up the strange girl with piercing glare and in having not recognized her would quickly step right into the bespectacled girls’ personal space and would sharply inquire her with an agitated tone of voice. "And just who are you anyways questioning a superior in such a manner hmm? I haven’t seen you around here before so… tell me… are you new around here or are you asking for trouble?"

#symphonyregaliafinale #ksjdfhksdhf

"Oh, how cute. Honnouji Academy's only going to be built next year. Good try, though."

Ragyo didn't show any ill-will whatsoever; she merely smiled as if she was humoring a small child. At this rate, the pink-haired wonder before her was indeed small, so it actually increased Ragyo's...superiority. How old was this girl anyways?

"The questions you're asking? They're supposed to be the questions I'm asking. Mitoribashi High School has a strict policy on uniforms, and I so happen to lead the club that manufactures those uniforms. Now if you would be so kind as to give me a name, then I'll either whip something up, or get Jakuzure to deal with you."

{ revelations } | closed

joyeusxe-archive-blog

▒ ❥ ▒ —- Ragyo…

Kiryuuin?

Her expression was momentarily perturbed, the smile seemed to evaporate, in its place held a peculiar sense of shock. It was regained, as an obvious fact, but that very change flipped a switch to suspicion.

❝Waaaaah, what a wonderful name that is~❞ Her fingers continued to fumble along with the threads, before eventually tangling them into the arbitrary mass they had emerged as. ❝The same name that my maman was called~ How uncanny, huh? Le monde est petit, no?❞

Her fingers eventually ceased their experted weave, a right hand gently tossing the ball to the relatively silent girl below. Wasn’t she like such an adorable messiah in pink?

❝Such great potential I see in you too, you know~! You seem to have watched those little threads for so long now; you’ve got to be able to do a little something with them, I know it!

So don’t disappoint little old me, ok~?❞