❛ small talk – really? ❜ phi cuts her eyes at him and – okay , fine – she’s judging him. christ , can’t a girl brood in peace? she sought the rooftop , knowing she’d be alone there , the no one would just coincidentally stumble upon her there. they’d have steps to climb. so many stairs that the old man’s knees would probably give. ( she jests , stairs aren’t much of an obstacle , once you’ve been to hell and back – ) not to say she didn’t see this coming , though. she’s pretty tired , probably gave one too many non-verbal responses today. unusually quiet , dismissive ; even dodging when sigma spoke slowly , gave her a very obvious , very deliberate opening to go on one of her tangents. ( akane , bursting at the seams , was more than willing to step in with the answers she didn’t provide. ) yeah – and she caught sigma and diana’s shared looks whenever she wasn’t staring at her feet. this is … new. having people who actually care enough to check on her. ❛ who put you up to this? ❜
somehow , aoi never struck her as the type to initiate small talk – but you learn something new every day.
❛ –whatever , it doesn’t matter. and… look , i really do appreciate what you’re trying to do here. but it’s not going to work. ❜ she stares ahead , resolved to hide in her thoughts , burying her fingers affectionately in the fur on gab’s head. ( yes , gab’s here , too. he’s a good listener , doesn’t ask insufferable questions. ) seeing aoi specifically dredges back the matter she’s been dwelling on. years ago , he had helped his own sister create a history where she could survive. on paper , her situation is almost similar – but loveless , devastating , ( at least for her ) to cope with. delta said his motives were complex ( god , she hates him , she hates– ) , that he took action to ensure their survival. but that’s a damn lie , isn’t it? he never gave a shit about her – it was all about ensuring his own survival. the way he had spoken , so noble , like he expects her to thank him for it pisses her off even more.
he locked her in an incinerator , put a gun to sigma’s head and forced diana to put her finger on the trigger. needed her to burn so that he could live. phi doesn’t remember much about burning to death. not much aside from the ache in her knuckles from pounding on the door , sweat crawling down her back , the heat. waiting for the end.
she recalls the alternative in vivid detail , in vicious reds , and the cold of a bloodstained floor beneath her knees. i’m not important , not important , notimportant. even after all the death she had been exposed to within the span of just a few days , she’s not numb , will never be numb ; and that moment stays with her , will probably stay with her for as long as she lives. she remembers the lonely ward she explored in her memory-deprived state afterwards. the way she just collapsed in grief , all the hope she had left whittled down to nothing , hearing the intercom announce that everyone else had died. sigma , diana – everyone but her. and akane had escaped. delta left her a message , too ; they lost , because she had lived. phi survived for as long as she could after that , maybe in part to spite him , searching for answers , for information she probably wouldn’t even be able to use in another timeline. if not for the fact that gab was counting on her , she might have just given up.
she wouldn’t haven chosen to put them – or anyone – through that trauma to ensure her own existence. not in a million years. but that’s just her. sigma and diana became her family before she even knew they were related by blood. turns out , blood doesn’t really mean anything at all… not the way she used to think it did , anyway.
❛ you and your sister … you’re close , right? ❜
aoi isn't known as the most delicate of people –– no, more like brash, or stubborn, or kind of an asshole, if anything. ( he doesn’t care to dispute it, really; he is kind of an asshole. ) still, he’d noticed how phi was quiet this morning, which, for her, is entirely out of character. there had to be dozens of times he was expecting her to cut in, even to simply raise her brow at something sigma said. sure, they all had a lot on their minds –– they’d only just returned from dcom with the threat of a crazed fanatic out to destroy the world hanging over their heads, along with barely recovering from everything else that happened. but… this is different. delta is her brother, her twin, and he put her through hell. yeah, maybe it was worth it, to make sure she exists, to stop a paradox. but there’s no justification for that cruelty.
or maybe he’s just a hypocrite.
what he did a year ago, was it truly so different? causing pain and suffering and death in every timeline, hurting people to fulfill an ultimately selfish wish... it’s too late for regrets, at any rate, and he’s not one to try and make excuses. akane is safe, and that’s all that matters to him, now.
well, that, and trying his hand at distracting others from their woes, apparently. not his first choice, but sigma and diana are still caught up talking to his sister about... something, and he can’t begin to guess where junpei’s gotten off to. so, here he is, crash keys’ currently assigned therapist.
❛ hey, i’m not trying to do anything. these are important questions. ❜ there’s an easy grin ( more of a smirk, really ) and a glint in his eyes, but they fade fast, his gaze drawn up to the expanse of clouds above. he leans against the roof’s railing, nonchalant, whatever tension he’s feeling buried by a hundred locked doors to which he’s conveniently lost the keys.
a silence settles upon them. there’s little he can say to ease the tempest that’s surely brewing in phi’s mind. aoi’s not the right person for this, clearly; they’re far too similar than he likes to admit, with their ever-sharpened wit to dig into those who try to get too close, to barricade their weaknesses from prying eyes. the only person he has any amount of practice comforting is his sister, and even then he finds it increasingly difficult, as her problems range from i spilled my tea on some documents and i need to prepare another nonary game as a last resort if the world ends. but that’s family for you!
he opens his mouth to speak, though phi beats him to it, bringing the brief silence to a halt. aoi looks to her –– a pause, before, ❛ ...yeah, we are. ❜ he only helped in terrorizing several innocent ( and some very not innocent ) people, and probably ruined a friendship he’d made in the previous terrifying death game, in order to save her. no big deal. ❛ might have something to do with the kidnapping and experiments when we were middle schoolers. nothin’ like shared trauma to really bring people together, huh? ❜
his remarks, though sardonic, are free of the usual edge to them, and his lips are quirked into a light smile. yeah, maybe not the most pleasant of memories, but it’s not something he ruminates on often, anymore. he frankly doesn’t have the time for brooding. ❛ but, hey, i didn’t come up here to go on about my life story. i’m sure you’ve heard it all by now, anyways... ❜ he crosses his arms, letting out a short breath. ❛ listen. family sucks most of the time. i was lucky. ...besides, you’re better off worrying about the people who, y’know, actually care about you. ❜
