decontrol | ɪɴʙᴏx.

CONTACT: kaoru.nagumo@compass.net
MESSAGE: Has Okita-san seen the carnival yet, I wonder?

[SURPRISE!! it's a close-to-midnight text from the one person Souji totally wants to hear from, right.]

CONTACT: yuuki.kuran@compass.net
MESSAGE: okita-san, are you busy?

CONTACT: isami.kondou@compass.net
MESSAGE: ... May I come and see you?

[KNOCK KNOCK, OKITA SOUJI. it seems like regardless of where he is, someone has taken the effort to

knock

on his window. a shame it's probably too dark outside right now to see much of anything unless he comes a little closer...!]

I would like to speak with you, if you have the time.

[ Ivan doesn't know if this will work or if he'll be ignored. Still, he has to try something as it's not right to leave things as is. ]

... Mr. Okita... would it be possible to meet? I... I want to apologize for my actions... And it doesn't feel right... doing so like this...

[GOOD MORNING, OKITA SOUJI. surely this name is exactly what you want to see at such an ungodly hour!

but, see, it doesn't feel ungodly to Kaoru. he isn't aware of the time - hasn't been since the first night of the week when he noticed Chizuru was gone and went to sit in a huff by her grave to wait for her to revive again (again! what a troublesome girl). ...and then it was dawn, and night again, and the light rain stopped and started and got so heavy that the dirt by the graveside turned to mud and still no Chizuru. no contact information, a closed grave; it took three days, but the reality of the situation does eventually sink in, and... what? then what?

another day passes and he's still wearing the same dress he had left in when he picks up his pocket watch, hem caked in dirt that flakes off on his sheets, fabric strangely stiff in the way that clothing gets after the rainwater on it dries. the gaping mouth of loss is inching a little too close. he's starting to panic, to feel claustrophobic in his own skin, so what can he do?

...what he's always done, of course. he can't drag himself away from the pit of his own misery, but he can attempt to bring people down with him.]

CONTACT: kaoru.nagumo@compass.net
MESSAGE: Are you feeling well again?

okita-san, did you ever sort things out with them?

[ To get to this point, Kondou has needed to take a long journey, more figurative than literal. Being alone because of his death penalty was one thing, but it was the process with which he'd had to process everything that had happened with Souji and the other members of the Shinsengumi which had been the most difficult.

No matter what, there would always be things that Kondou needed to apologise for. Both his actions back at home and, inevitably, the ones here. He was a man prone to making errors in judgement. While he thought that something was the right path at the time, often it turned around on him and became a complete disaster. Now... wasn't exactly one of those times. He didn't want to apologise, because an apology wouldn't fix this.

Instead, he'd taken the time to consider things from Souji's point of view. Why he'd chosen to take the path that he did, why he went there in the first place. He'd had to grapple with the idea that some of it may have been his fault, that he may have forced him to go that way. There was much they needed to discuss.

It was what brought Kondou out to the harbour that evening, ignoring the way that the rain soaked into his skin, as he finally saw a familiar figure not too far away. It had taken too long to get to this point - and no more. ]

Souji.

[ it would figure that one of the worst things for her to get caught in would happen just as she was turning in after being out most of the night. the first droplet that struck her hair made her pause, if only because there was something strange about it, something not right... and then it started to come down until it poured.

It had been maybe all of five seconds—if even—that she'd stood there paralyzed, her expression horrified as it drenched her hair, the white of her school uniform, her skin—everything including the world around her in red. she couldn't scream. she couldn't get it in her mouth. so she bolted, practically slamming herself against the wall of the nearest structure piece with enough of an alcove to get her out of the 'rain', letting herself breathe only then as it came out in a half sob. but, for all she wanted to get away from it, for all she felt like curling up in a ball as she hugged herself against the wall, she knew this wasn't her alone that must be out in this. while it may not have the same effect on them as it will on her because they aren't vampires, it doesn't make it necessarily any less awful for them.

slowly, she looks up back out across the campus from her spot, looking to see if anyone's around, if anyone comes by, if anyone needs help because they're not getting out of this—

( yuuki wouldn't be terribly upset if she remained alone, however, because she didn't need to see it to know her eyes were red, that there was a dim glow to them that shouldn't be there but is because because she can smell it, and her fangs are starting to ache. ) ]

week 12, day 1, night, THE FLOOD BEGINs

week 12; day 4 } late afternoon

week 13, leeeet's day midweek?

night at some point in week 13 WHENEVER WORKs

w16, d1

[Week 15, Day 6?, audio]

w16 d4 4:30am, 1/?? IT BEGINS....... IM SO SORRy