gameofmana | ♪ Our house ♪ in middle of this tree ♪ our house

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♪ Our house ♪ in middle of this tree ♪ our house

Who: Everyone
What: The first morning of an adventure begins.
Where: Home
When: Day 1
Other: Be courteous and warn for any of the usuals in your thread subject title if it gets to that point.

You wake up to a serene and idyllic morning.

Outside, a pleasant glow from the sun fills the room including the small crannies in which the beds are tucked. All windows have been latched close, but it's easy to see a gentle breeze ruffling the leaves of branches which loom overhead. Faintly, bird song can be heard from outside. In this place, it'd be a simple matter to close your eyes again and drift back to sleep.

There's simply one problem: this is not where you last went to sleep.

Waking up properly will display not only how the picturesque and cozy little room stands out in stark contrast to where you should be, but that you are sharing this space with someone else. Depending on things, they might be very mundane or very... unusual. Either way, they seem just as bewildered as you are. The good news is that at least all the things you immediately had on you at the time are right nearby the foot of your bed along with what seems like a small gift- a small pouch of some sort of coin. (500 Lucre, although that might not be immediately realized anytime soon.)

Exploring the rest of the house shows it to be otherwise quite empty, except for some writing utensils and paper in what appears to be the study along with basic kitchen tools in, well, the kitchen. There's no food, however, and no decoration. Venturing outside onto the grounds reveals an expansive but not particularly well tended estate including another building that is fairly run down. Attempting to venture down the path from the front door out into the world reveals... well. Nothing. It's a fruitless endeavor.

However, not for long.

Hajime Iwaizumi will be the one to find what appear to be a few discarded children's toy blocks. The Colorblocks immediately seem off in some way, strange even as they should seem inconspicuous. Something about them will compel him to pick them up. The nature of this apparent toy will not be obvious until he ventures near the edge of Home himself. A sound, almost like distant bellchimes, will start to emit from the Colorblocks.

When exposed to the air, suddenly they emit a glow and shoot off into the sky with all the brilliance of a falling star. Its trail is both noticeable and easy to follow, curving an arc through the sky until it falls some distance away... and its impact bursts an aurora of colors through the distant and dimmer sky, encircling the site. As the whirlwind of color fades, what appears to be a town can be just made out...

That is the town of Domina.

Some OOC notes:
➸ Prior to the activation of the Colorblocks, the only books which will be filled out in the Study will be "Artifacts" and "Visitors".
➸ After Domina has been unlocked and some characters have explored the town, "People" and "Locations" will be filled out in the Study as well.
➸ To see who your character is initially rooming with, check the Home page. These rooming assignments are not permanent or mandatory by any means, and characters can change them whenever. Officially letting me know will be present and explained in the next mod post coming in a week's time, but for now we can play it relaxed and loose. Just don't burn down the tree in the meantime.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ken's posture changes from threatening to suddenly alert and listening before Chikusa even enters the room - as soon as he hears the footsteps, in fact. He's lived with Chikusa for pretty much all his life, and his senses are sharp; it would be weird if he didn't recognize that tired shuffle by now.

"Kakipi!" And he stalks right over to him, forgetting his roommate entirely. He considers Chikusa a lot more likely to be able to explain things to him than some stranger, anyway. "This doesn't seem like one of Mukuro-sama's illusions, byon." This is a relatively astute observation for Ken; Mukuro's illusions are many and varied, but 'quaint' and 'rustic' certainly aren't adjectives anyone would use for them. Even when Mukuro makes pleasant illusions - rare enough, unless he's dealing with Chrome - they tend to be fancier. This simply isn't Mukuro's style.

It’s true. When it comes to illusions, their master has a decidedly… flashy sort of style, whether twisted and dark or just so unbelievable that the mind doesn’t know how to defend itself against something like that. If this is an illusion, it’s not Mukuro’s.

And, frankly… “It doesn’t feel like an illusion at all…” Then again, that’s a guess on his part. Obviously, Dokuro would be better at confirming this theory, but he has no idea if she’s around. The only reason he was even sure of Ken was because he heard the racket.

"Illusions never feel like illusions unless they're really crappy ones, byon," Ken complains, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He should know; Ken relies on his senses above all else. Any illusion which fools all his senses is almost inescapable for him, whereas those that don't aren't nearly as effective. Mukuro, and any illusions who have the skill to stand beside or opposite him, can pretty much always fool him.

"But why would anyone put us in this kind of illusion, Kakipi?" Ken gives Chikusa a familiar look that's all aggravated confusion. "It's nice, byon." Even Mukuro hardly ever bothers to waste nice illusions on them.

Honestly, if this is an illusion, that’s a good question. Even if this were an illusion from a mafia Mist-user who wanted revenge on their group for any number of reasons, wouldn’t they do something typically gruesome and horrific? That’s the mafia for you, after all. Besides Sawada’s bizarre outlier of a group, they don’t do nice.

“...Something nice to make the horrific look worse, maybe…” He thinks for a second longer. “Maybe it’s a test.” It would be like Mukuro-sama to throw them a curveball to keep them on their toes, able to control what happens instead of letting it come up in a more serious situation. This isn’t something they’re used to or would expect, so, it has to have some merit.

"Yeah, it's probably a test, byon," Ken agrees, with something like relief. That fits in with what he knows of Mukuro, and Chikusa's the one who thought of the possibility, and since Chikusa's smart Ken assumes he's probably right. That explains everything.

...or almost everything. Ken frowns after a moment. "...what do you think he's testing us for? If he wanted to test to see if we could figure out an illusion and escape from it, it'd make more sense to use a less obvious one, byon. It's way too easy to tell that something's off here, byon."

Every now and then, Ken can say something smart. In this case, his knowledge of Mukuro and his own instincts tell him that this is the wrong kind of illusion for seeing if they can break free of it. Which means that there must be some other purpose...that, or it's not an illusion at all, but for the moment he's discarded that possibility.

Of course when Ken says something that’s actually a good point, it’s about Mukuro. Chikusa isn’t particularly surprised. Both of them are so hyper focused to him, they pick up on such things. It is food for thought, so he lingers on it for a moment. Mukuro… Well, he does sometimes do things for his own amusement instead of a particular goal. Still, for him and Ken, Mukuro would use his illusions in different ways for ‘fun’. There has to be a point to this if it’s him…

Soon enough, however, nothing immediately comes to mind. “There might be instructions or hints somewhere…” That sort of thing would be simple enough for Mukuro. Turning around, he starts to shuffle away, expecting Ken to either come along or straight up take the lead.

"...you think it's not Mukuro, Kakipi?" Ken questions this even as he falls into step beside him. Even for Ken, who has next to nothing in the understanding of 'personal space' unless it's for Mukuro, who is permitted privileges others don't get...he's standing really close to Chikusa. They're practically touching.

Ken is clearly unnerved, which isn't easy to accomplish in someone whose imagination for consequences doesn't stretch far even when he bothers to consider the possibility. Chikusa is familiar. As a result, Ken is glued to him for the moment.

It’d be hard to ignore someone getting in his space so much, and with Ken, it’s even more impossible. Chikusa can guess the reason why. After all, he’s distrubed himself, even if it’s hidden under layers and layers. He won’t say anything- he’s not sure if he even possesses the ability to do so sometimes- but he does let their arms bump and brush against one another as he shuffles his way through these foreign halls.

“...Maybe.” He pauses, glancing at a room they’re passing by. “We can’t say anything for certain… And it’s better if we get back to Mukuro-sama one way or another.” If this is a test, they need to get to him immediately to prove their value. If this is something different… Then they still need to get to him, but for an entirely different reason.

"If it's not Mukuro-sama, he'd come for us, right?" Ken's watching Chikusa closely now. He wants to hear yes. But it's clear he's not sure he will. "He'd never let another illusionist mess with what's his, right?"

There’s no need to worry. Chikusa adjusts his glasses, a sign of his frustration with the situation, but the words that come out of his mouth aren’t in opposition to what Ken says. “Mukuro-sama wouldn’t let anyone else have us.” That much, he’s certain of. This world has taken too much from them, and their master is greedy from the injustice of that. His claws are sunken into them, a fact for which Chikusa is forever grateful about, and marks will be left before he lets them go.

“If that’s the case… We shouldn’t make Mukuro-sama exert himself too much.” A slightly disgruntled sigh before he admits, “We’ll have to do work on this end too, Ken.”

Ken's not quite inaudible sigh of relief at Chikusa's confirmation is an illustration of how they're different. Chikusa is more critical of Mukuro, and at the end of the day sees Mukuro only as a man - albeit, admittedly, a man Chikusa loves and would give his life for without question. But, at the same time, Chikusa knows how much Mukuro values them, is able to read between the lines without needing someone else's finger to guide him through the words. Ken is as blindly and fiercely loyal as a dog, and would insist Mukuro was a perfect being until his dying breath...but his desire to please Mukuro is as much desperation as devotion. He wants Mukuro to care about him, to value him - but Ken doesn't know if he actually does. Part of it is Mukuro's own hatred for emotional vulnerability, his refusal to openly acknowledge he cares about his subordinates...but he's given strong unspoken indications of that, over the years. The problem is that Ken is terrible at reading subtleties. He misses the unspoken hints and keeps striving for a direct (and sincere) verbal acknowledgment that will never come.

"So what should we do to break the illusion, byon?" Ken's hardly a mental giant. He has a naturally higher threshold for resisting illusions, given that any illusion needs to convince his nose as much as his eyes as to its reality before it can fool him, but once he's inside one it's tremendously hard for someone like him to break out. Chikusa's got more of a chance in this area, and Ken naturally defers to him.

Times like this, Chikusa never really knows what to do. It’s a lot like that time only a couple of years ago when they’d made their second prison break and ran countries away, only to step into an empty theater with no Mukuro in sight. Ken’s grief and desperation had been like an emergency flare shot into the ceiling, setting ablaze decrepit wood and threatening to burn anything that would get close. Chikusa’s only defense in those kinds of cases is logic, but what is that to blazing emotion?

Here, it’s not exactly the same situation. Ken is still sticking close and not running off, for example. Still… For a moment, Chikusa had been worried, and Ken’s sigh could be his own.

Yet no time to rest. The question is one they have to consider seriously. Chikusa stops at the stairs landing, almost seeming to consider it. “If it’s an extensive illusion… Then there has to be some part of it that’s a little weaker than the rest.” Possibly, anyway.

"So we should go look around?" Ken seems to be feeling better already at the prospect of doing something...which is probably the exact opposite reaction Chikusa's having at the prospect of having to do something. Oh well. That's how they've always worked.

"I could channel, byon. See if anything smells off." He pauses, then scowls. "Well...if anything doesn't seem like it belongs to the illusion, byon." To Ken's nose, everything seems off around here.

“It’s for the best.” If anything will sense a disturbance in this place, it’ll be one of Ken’s senses. Chikusa doesn’t doubt that. On the off-chance he can’t find anything… Well, Chikusa supposes they’ll get to that when they do. They’ll definitely be in trouble…

“If you find anything, let me know. We’ll meet in a few hours…” That should be enough time.

"Oh." Ken loses some of his enthusiasm when he realizes Chikusa means for them to split up. He's been sticking this close so far for a reason. But he shrugs off the discomfort with the ease of someone who, frankly, is used to life being less than ideal. There's times he can get away with whining for attention or accommodation - generally, when nothing pressing is weighing on them. But nothing could be more necessary than getting back to Mukuro, so he resigns himself to the idea of Chikusa leaving him for this readily.

In a way, it's always a relief when there's a solid, logical reason for Chikusa or Mukuro to leave him behind. There's plenty of times they do it that don't make sense to him, or where the reasons seem unimportant. That always feels worse.

He doesn't ask where they'll meet. That kind of thing isn't necessary. Ken will just follow his nose back to Chikusa. "Guess I'll see you in a few hours, byon." And he lopes off without waiting for a reply that, since it's Chikusa, probably isn't coming anyway.

It's easier to leave than be left.

Quietly, Chikusa watches Ken bound off. Sometimes it feels like Ken is surging ahead of him, even when they’re close together, and that one day he’ll disappear out of sight. It’s not an uncommon feeling. Mukuro and Ken got something powerful out of surviving the Estraneo experiments, something that makes them seem almost inhuman at sometimes- powerful and ethereal, vicious and animalistic.

In contrast… he’s nothing.

Such a regular feeling, Chikusa is used to brushing it away. Sighing to himself, he starts to shuffle down the stairs. Maybe he shouldn’t have sent Ken off.

After all, now he has to actually talk with people.

By the time a couple of hours pass, it won’t be hard to find Chikusa again. All this interaction and walking away has exhausted his already poor energy levels. Thus, he’s retreated to the room he awoke in, now blissfully empty and perfect for laying facedown in a bed. He’s alive, just absolutely exhausted.

In contrast, when Ken trots into Chikusa's room, he drops onto the bed next to him hard enough to make the mattress jump a little. "Hey, Kakipi." He sounds...off. Disturbed by something. Not quite scared, not quite angry, not even fully confused. That's a bit alarming. Anything that goes beyond anger or bafflement in Ken is something significant. "Didja find anything?"

Well, that’s enough to get him to slowly turn his head so that he’s actually looking at Ken. "No… If they’re real, the other people don’t seem to have any idea what this place is either…"

"I found something...weird outside, byon." Ken is shifting restlessly, clearly unsettled. "I think it's the edge of the illusion, byon. The world just...stops."

“I saw that.” It had been kind of hard not to. Chikusa shifts, arms crossing beneath his head so that he can look at Ken properly. “...Did you try to go past it?” He hadn’t, obviously, but that’s because Ken hadn’t been there with him. Maybe if they’d been together, Chikusa would have felt more daring.

"Of course I did, byon. I thought it was the edge of the illusion." Ken huffs and stretches out half on top of Chikusa, resting his chin on Chikusa's chest. He looks uneasy still, restless. "...it's not just that you can't see anything past there, Kakipi. There's no smell past there. There's no world past there. It just...stops. And whenever I went out there, I wound up coming back right where I left!"

That's concerning. Ken's not the brightest, but his animal senses are sharp, and he's usually quite good at navigating as a result. His intellect notwithstanding, he wouldn't just get confused and turned around.

As Ken speaks, the corners of Chikusa’s mouth twitch down. It means more than the little it shows- he doesn’t particularly emote and even the slightest bit means tons. That’s not right. For a normal person, maybe they wouldn’t smell anything in particular, but Ken isn’t like that. His nose can pick up anything. For him to say there’s no scent… And to get turned around...

If it’s actually concerning him, then he can’t even imagine how Ken is feeling. Perhaps that’s the reason why his fingers slip up, running through messy blond hair. In the meantime, Chikusa tries to think. An illusion could do this sort of thing, but it’d be easier, wouldn’t it, to just keep them trapped in a building or something like that? Why have an illusion just end instead of pretending to go on forever?

“Ken… What if… this isn’t an illusion?”

Ken relaxes slightly as Chikusa's fingers run through his hair. There's not even the usual preemptively defensive tension he gets when Chikusa does this when he's dirty, and Ken is halfway on edge waiting for Chikusa to complain about his needing a ~bath~. This is partly because he really needs the reassurance right now, too much to think about anything else, and also because in the back of his mind he knows he did bathe recently and is therefore safe.

Ken doesn't care about being clean for himself, but he's very aware of his own cleanliness level purely through anticipating complaints from other people.

At Chikusa's suggestion, however, Ken's whole body jerks as his head snaps up. "It can't be real, right? Nobody could just - take us from Mukuro-sama and drop us in a weird place like this!" There's his kneejerk anger at anything he doesn't want to hear, but there's a very real undercurrent of fear to it. The part about being taken away from Mukuro-sama is the operative thought in his alarm, and no doubt it is for Chikusa too.

It's a lot easier to cling to the idea that it's an illusion, that Mukuro is waiting for them not far outside its boundaries, than it is to accept the possibility that they may be untold miles - untold worlds - from the center of their universe.

He never should have said anything at all, because Ken jerking up with his voice heavy with anger and fear reflects back into him. It’s not obvious, because very little about Chikusa is, but it’s there- vibrating and echoing down his throat into his heart until he feels like he’s going to choke. All this time, he’s been doing his best to actively stay calm instead of drowning in apathy like he usually does, but…

Chikusa is scared too.

His fingers slip out of Ken’s hair, instead curling tightly into his jacket. “Ken. Stop it.” Taking a breath, he pushes himself up onto his elbows. His heart has made the move from his chest into his throat. Chikusa doesn’t know how he manages to speak around it.

“You said… you couldn’t smell the illusion…”

"Yeah, but..." The tension is all but quivering through Ken's frame, anxiety with no outlet. He'd probably go tearing around the place, trashing things or people, if he didn't need the reassurance of being close to Chikusa right now. As it is, though, it feels like his muscles are trying to tear themselves off his bones.

He shifts when Chikusa sits up, arms wrapping around him and digging fingers into his back as he buries his face against Chikusa's stomach, like he wants to burrow away from the world. If all he can see, smell, think of is Chikusa, maybe everything else can not be happening.

He doesn't have an argument. He knows that there are only a few illusionists in the world they know if with the skill to make an illusion this extensive and convincing, and out of them only Fran, Mukuro, and maybe Mammon would ever consider making the illusion convincing to the nose. And even they might be hard-pressed to replicate, or flat out fabricate, so many smells. Ken's known this all along. He just doesn't want to believe in any other possibility.

"Where's Mukuro-sama?" The words are so muffled against Chikusa's clothes that Chikusa may not even be able to understand them. But the plaintive, almost agonized quality of the words is unmistakable. This is even worse than Mukuro being in Vendicare Prison; at least they knew where that was, could have gone to it if it had been what Mukuro wanted. This...this is being completely cut off from him. "Where's Chrome?"

♪ Our house ♪ in middle of this tree ♪ our house

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