maskormenacelogs | inspiration; imagination; illustration

Entry tags:

inspiration; imagination; illustration | OPEN

WHO: Yusuke + OPEN
WHERE: various places around Heropa and Nonah
WHEN: All over June!
WHAT: Yusuke has been and always will be open to suggestion, when it comes to people, places, and things worth drawing. It's time to actually put those suggestions to good use! + angst involving ice boys and rotten adults, and whatever else comes up
WARNINGS: descriptions of grisly supernatural murders?

1. don't let our hearts freeze - Heropa ice rink

[ Shortly after Yusuke had first arrived (a month now, hard to believe, so much had happened so fast) Adachi had told him he might be able to find inspiration at the ice rink.

So he did. It was nice and cool, a refreshing change from the building summer heat, and full of all sorts of people. Passionate professionals, nervous beginners, classes of children, and everything in between. An impressive sample of various emotions, all in one place where he wouldn't have to be distracted by the sweat dripping down his back.

It nearly pained him to say it, but Adachi was right.

He sticks out like a sore thumb here. Not content just to bring a sketchbook, Yusuke has set up his own stool and easel at the edge of the seating area, where there is walking space between the chairs and the dividing wall. Or, there was walking space, before Yusuke set up shop there.

Other spectators can go around. He's working on something that is sure to be a masterpiece here! ]

2. watching freaky people - Heropa government housing

[ It's starting to get hot in Heropa.

It's even hotter if, like Yusuke, you're on the roof, wearing a hoodie.

He sunburns easily, okay?

As uncomfortable as it is up here on top of Heropa unit #15, it provides Yusuke with an excellent vantage point from which to watch his neighbors as they come and go. He used to do this at the subway station, but Heropa isn't nearly as busy as Shibuya was. There's nothing creepy about it, at least not intentionally, but sitting on a rooftop with an easel and full paint and brush setup hardly makes him blend in as well as he did in his Tokyo underground people watching days.

There's no ladder leaned against the side of the house, only an open bedroom window with an unfortunate splatter of orange paint underneath it from the first failed attempt to make it onto the roof. Hopefully his roommates don't mind? ]

3. your love is better than ice cream - Nonah city park

[ While he's following other people's suggestions, he might as well take all of them. Cinders' suggestion was the park in Nonah, scenic, but allegedly prone to imPorts testing out their powers. Nonah is a little further from home, so Yusuke doesn't go all out, but he does have a couple sketchbooks in his bag, a regular one, and the heartier, thicker one that he uses to copy various powers onto cards, to use...eventually. If the situation ever arose.

There's a charming ice cream stand that miraculously has a green tea flavor, so the young artist grabs two scoops of that (bowl, not cone) and wanders, idly searching out for a spot where inspiration might strike. His eyes are focused on a pair of songbirds flying above him, and so he doesn't notice that he's about to run into someone until he's already done so. ]

Ah! I am deeply sorry, here, let me help you...

[ Hope you dodged the flying bowl of ice cream. ]

4. your heart is too strong anyway - Heropa outskirts (closed to Yuri)

[ On the outskirts of Heropa, past a rusted up path of train tracks decades out of use, is a large, open area. Or, open enough, despite it being littered with both tree stumps and entire trees uprooted by Florida's storms. It was Adachi's secret training spot, where he had brought Yusuke, and now he was bringing Yuri. It was not his intention to give away any secrets, at this point, Yuri already knew everything there was to know. About his life in Heropa, at least.

They were here, in Adachi's spot of all places, because it was isolated. They should be the only ones there, so there was no danger of stabbing any natives with pointed icicles, destroying any property, or killing any flora or fauna that wasn't on its last legs anyway.

Yusuke leaps onto the trunk of a tree turned sideways, web of roots that once gave it life exposed for all to examine. He shouldn't be able to jump that high, but the enhancements in agility and precision given to him by this world make the unlikely entirely ordinary. Still in plain clothes, he looks down at Yuri, blue-grey eyes warm, but that didn't mean he wasn't taking this seriously. Especially now that he knew way too much, learning to utilize his powers was of utmost importance. ]

Are you ready, Yuri?

5. any way you want it - wild card.

[ Go crazy! Add what you want! Or hit me up at

dorsquee and we can work something out! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ It's a few hours after Akira leaves before Yusuke talks to anyone else. He needs to clear his head. He needs to take care of himself, which he never prioritizes as highly as taking care of others or taking care of his art. There is no other choice, today, there are more people at stake than just himself, so he has to be the best that he can be.

He finishes his meal, even though it's gotten cold, and makes enough changes to the ode to self-loathing propped on his easel to transform it into something else entirely. He isn't sure what yet, and likely won't until this is over.

He takes time to sit, calmly and quietly with his thoughts, keeping a cool head as per his promise to Futaba. It was something he said before the news (allegations, really, but so gruesome and specific that the safest course of action was to treat them as news, for now) about Adachi had been delivered. That changed things, but it also didn't, his word was more important than ever now that his immediate mission was to sort through more lies from more adults dead set on underestimating him.

Phase one, make sure everyone is in the know. Akira would talk to Futaba. Yuri, who was not a Phantom Thief, and not prepared for a fight, would be harder, but he was closer to the issue than his own friends from home. He deserved to know, he deserved a say, and, well. Yusuke wanted to see him first, so he picks up his government-issued device off the table and gives him a call. ]

[Yuri, on the other hand, had opted to vent his stress and frustration in a long stretch of practice. He'd lost track of how long he'd been going over the same routine—looping around a makeshift course he'd set up for himself out in the outskirts of the city to work on target practice on his own. Stationary targets aren't nearly as good as training with Yusuke had been, but at least he feels like he's making some kind of progress this way.

The phone rings several times before he manages to dash over and pick it up, answering in a breathless voice after a quick glance at the caller ID.]

Yusuke? What's up?

Yuri...

[ There's a pang of something the second he hears the skater's voice, warm but stinging, the dread of the conversation they have to have creeping in on the comfort of a friend's voice.

But no time for those kinds of feelings. ]

We have to meet in person, right now. There is something I have to show you, and you won't like it. I shouldn't talk about it over the phone.

[Something in Yuri's gut twists uncomfortably, and he can feel his mouth dry out. Had something else happened with Akechi? What else would Yusuke be calling about?]

Where? ... Is everyone okay?

Everyone is safe right now.

[ He tries to sound reassuring, but his voice is tinged with enough urgency to make it just slightly...not so. ]

I am at home, unit fifteen, can you make it here without anyone knowing?

Yeah. Just leave a window open for me.

[Yurio is definitely not reassured in the slightest and it's clear in the growing unease in his tone and the rustling coming across the connection while he jogs back towards town.]

I will. My window is facing the street.

[ It had been open anyway, it had been hard enough to breathe earlier without being suffocated by the smell of curry and paint fumes. ]

[It actually isn't much later that a familiar silver bengal kitten scrambles in through the open window, chest heaving while Yuri catches his breath. He'd run the whole way after that unsettling message, boosted by the extra speed his skating granted him.]

What... What happened?

[ He'll find Yusuke sitting on his bed with his back against the wall, one hand holding his phone in front of his face and the other covering his mouth. He's staring at the message he's just received like it's the most disgusting thing he's ever laid eyes on.

That pretty much settles it. ]

It's about Adachi.

[ Even with the circumstances as they were, it felt perfectly normal talking to Yuri as a cat, unlike when he was a tiger. Eventually, he would spend a lot of time musing on what a coincidence it was, but for now, he really needed to talk to a human. ]

You should sit down.

[Yuri changes back in the few steps it takes him to move from the window to the bed and perches tensely on the edge of it. He'd looked worried before, but now he looks positively grim, lips spread in a taut line while he looks between Yusuke and the phone. He's not sure why something about Adachi was so important that he needed to be called over immediately, but it clearly matters to Yusuke. Had the man finally gotten himself killed?]

Is he—? But you said everyone was okay...

He's not hurt, but he is not okay. The man is deranged.

[ To talk about it out loud, to admit it, makes the anger bubble up again, but this is the sort he can use, channel into intensity and focus. It's clear in his voice, this is of utmost importance. ]

Back home, Akechi was a detective, too. I mean, he created cases so that he could solve them, but...he was looking into the Metaverse, where our power comes from, and he found a file about him.

[ Yusuke casts an uneasy glance over at the painting that was hanging on the wall, and was definitely due to get moved anywhere but his bedroom, before pulling up the two messages Akira had forwarded him from Akechi. Silently, he scrolls to the top and hands it over to Yuri. ]

Read it for yourself.

[Yuri accepts the phone, frowning in concern and confusion, and turns his attention to the messages Yusuke's pulled up.

The first message alone is enough to make him blanch and shake his head. He's not sure what he expected, but it sure as hell wasn't accusations of murder. He can't begin to even entertain the thought that it might be true yet. Adachi is far from a great guy, but there's no way he'd have sunk that low, right? No way someone responsible for multiple deaths could be tangled into Yuri's life as deeply as Adachi was now, right??

It's the second message that truly shakes him. There are too many details—specific details—for him to dismiss it entirely. Even knowing the claims came from a confirmed murderer couldn't make him doubt it completely. It was an extravagant story for Akechi to have just made up, and what would he have to gain if he had? He'd already admitted to his crimes, so what—

His stomach turns suddenly, and he claps his hand tightly over his mouth. It takes a few long moments before he gathers himself enough to actually speak again.]

This... This is... It can't be true, can it? [There's a pleading tone to his voice now, and it's plain on his face when he finally looks up at Yusuke.] He's just making it up so...so... For some reason!

[Yusuke knew more about Akechi then he did. There had to be something he wasn't aware of. Some reason for Akechi to lie that Yusuke must know about. It's a better thought than the sickening idea that he's been tolerating a murderer worming his way into the family he'd only just accepted that he had.]

[ It had only been a few hours since Yusuke's similar response. The desperation on Yuri's face makes his heart break, the wetness that had blurred his vision before threatens to make a come back.

His tone is softer now, but no less sure. ]

I think it has to be. Akechi is a bad liar, and there are too many questions about Adachi that this would answer.

What questions?

[Yuri could probably come up with a few himself if he thought about it, but he doesn't want to. It hurt enough trying and failing to think of reasons for Akechi to lie.]

[ Yusuke has more than a few questions about Adachi, and he has for a while. He thought he might have some kind of deep problems he wasn't willing to talk about, but hanging women over telephone poles was not what he had in mind. ]

Why he never talks about our home world unless he wants to boast about his job. Why he can't control his temper, not with anyone, he provokes people stronger than him into attacking him, because he's bored, apparently, and he came after you over a text message. When I asked him about it, he brushed it off, he made a handful of excuses, and when I asked him if there was anything else about him I needed to know, he told me that he wants people to know who he is now and not who he was.

[ He's getting worked up. He shouldn't get worked up again, but he is, his voice steadily getting louder and more upset. For a second, he stops ranting, and there's just the sound of his foot tapping against the floor, before he takes a deep breath and carries on. ]

He only thinks about himself, but he is impulsive enough, and self-hating enough to keep getting in trouble despite that. If his Persona is a part of his personality, part of his being like everyone else's, why does he lose control over it? He doesn't know where it is, or he doesn't know what it does, or whatever today's problem is. Why ask a teenager he doesn't know to go undercover with him, if not to keep me close, or have someone to pin it on when things go wrong? And...

[ The worst question of all, at least when it came to venting to Yuri. He nibbles at his tongue, he doesn't even want to say it, but it's been eating at him ever since and he hasn't said a word. ]

And what on earth were he and Viktor talking about, back at the hospital? We were both there, you have to remember. He knows something about Adachi that they had to dodge around in front of us.

[That's a more significant list than Yuri'd thought he would get. There were a lot of things that bothered him about Adachi too, but hearing someone else lay it out like this lent a credibility to it that he didn't want to think too long on.

He shakes his head again and rakes the fingers of one hand through his hair, practically pulling at it in a fit of nerves.]

No, no, that's all— Look, I was fucking up—I don't know. Maybe the only friendship he has? So he—anyone would've been pissed about that text. [Saying he deserved to be threatened wasn't really what he wanted to do, but he wanted even less to think that he'd been threatened by a killer.

And then there was that last part... He finally tears his gaze away from Yusuke to stare at the bedspread like it might give him some convenient explanation for the strange conversation Adachi and Viktor'd had. It was strange, but that didn't mean anything by itself! There were a hundred things that it could be. A hundred things that didn't implicate Viktor in...in what? Knowing about it? Condoning it? Both those thoughts were ridiculous.

He shakes his head again, frowning with firm denial.]

And Viktor—Viktor wouldn't... Whatever they were talking about then was something else. Something fucking stupid knowing them.

Rational people with proper impulse control don't get angry and attack others without thinking hard about it, which he did not, and they express remorse without being asked to, which he did not. It sounds like the man in the file to me. And even if you ignore that...

[ It was surreal, almost, watching someone else go through the same whiplash of emotion he had been through just that morning, over the exact same thing. He wants to reach out for him, offer him some level of comfort, but he isn't sure how Yuri wants to deal with problems like this, or if he's ever had to. Instead of reaching for a hand, or a shoulder, his nails scratch at his own palms, waiting until he can come up with the words without bombarding the other boy with horrors. ]

Maybe you're right. I don't know him nearly as well as you do, of course. But what could possibly be a bigger secret than the Constellation, if not this? Adachi is...in love with him, I think, if anyone knew, it would be him.

—I know he's in love with him!

[Rather, he'd guessed it. Someone else thinking the same was enough confirmation for him though. How the hell was he supposed to miss it? He'd suspected a crush from nearly day one, and even for someone as emotionally incompetent at Yuri it hadn't been hard to watch the progression from crush to something more the longer Adachi hung around.]

But Viktor wouldn't keep this from me if it were true. If he knew. He's— We've known each other for years. He calls me his little brother! He'd tell me, so there's no way he knows anything about this if it's real!

Edited 2017-06-14 05:07 (UTC)

Maybe. I hope not, but I can't think of a better explanation.

[ Really, he didn't know enough about Viktor to say, he could only point out what he had seen. The man seemed genuine, but so did every other lying adult who had trampled on Yusuke or his friends and expected them to take it, smiling. ]

Sometimes...the people you love are not what you think they are. My mentor, the man who raised me as if I were his, lied to me from the moment I entered his care. He could be lying, too. They all do it.

[Why the hell did he know so many people who only knew shitty adults? That couldn't be normal, could it? No, he was sure it wasn't. Sure, the adults in Yuri's own life had issues, but they were at least trustworthy. And reliable as their health allowed in most cases. Even Viktor was really trying to be more dependable!]

Viktor's not like that. He's a flaky moron, but he's not like that.

[Why were they even still talking about him anyway? The real problem was Adachi. That was what they needed to focus on.

Yuri takes a deep breath and buries a hand in his hair again, combing through the strands to undo the mess he made of it earlier. It helps him to gather his thoughts again.]

What do you want to do about Adachi? You've gotta confirm this somehow, right? And then... [Who knows. Hopefully it would turn out to be nothing and they could just deal with Akechi and forget about the rest of this.]

[ He doesn't want to scare Yuri. Fear, he knows, is one of many natural reactions to something like this, but he doesn't want to be the one to make him feel that way. Yusuke worries that he will, if he keeps pressing over Viktor, but this is too important not to. His voice wobbles, sounding unsure now, no longer ranting but choosing his words with caution and precision. ]

They all do it. Even the ones not guilty of this kind of cruelty. They get comfortable and resist change, even when it stares them right in the face, so they look the other way.

[ He runs his hand through his own hair, picking at a fleck of paint caught in there, before reaching out gingerly to hold the other boy's shoulder. ]

But whether he already knows or not, he is involved, as we are. That is why I wanted to consult with you before I do anything. We can't investigate from a world away, Akechi has told us everything he knows. The only thing we can do is ask.

No. [It's spoken in an icy tone, sharp-edged and steadfast.] I get that you knew some shitty adults, but you don't know him like I do, so just drop it. I'm not even going to consider shit like that unless he tells me himself.

[He drops his hands into his lap and folds them up around each other in a grip that's painful just to look at.]

Let me come when you ask Adachi. I've known him longer than any of you. I can tell when he's hiding shit.

[ Denial is a game Yusuke knows very well. The ins and outs and excuses are all things he is intimately familiar with. He is in no place to judge or get frustrated and impatient, how can he, when it's like looking at himself, barely even a year ago? He spent his entire life shielding his eyes from the truth, out of innocence or ignorance or a fear-filled combination of both.

Being forcefully dragged out of it was the only thing that worked for him. If Akira and the others had waited until he was ready to see the light, he would still be starving in Madarame's shack, wondering what happened to his mother and dreaming of someday getting somewhere. And considering what had happened to the older pupils, that was the best case scenario.

The steely cold in Yuri's voice doesn't bother him at all. If anything, it's a comfort, a guarantee that he knows the exact motions that he's going through. ]

You have to come. And Futaba, too, in case something happens. I have to call him now.

Edited 2017-06-14 16:02 (UTC)

[Yuri lets out a long, slow breath when Yusuke does, in fact, let the issue drop. His white knuckled grip on his own hands relaxes.]

Okay. I'll stay quiet, but...put him on speaker.

[ Hand now rubbing gently over the other boy's shoulder, Yusuke nods. His other hand reaches for the phone and swipes it open, his eyebrow raises at the notification waiting for him. ]

He left me a voicemail.

[ Which he doesn't bother listening to, he just goes ahead and returns the call, hitting the speaker button as it rings. ]

Yuri; Monday 6/12, evening

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