RP [Illi] Doki-Doki Channel!

“Run?” The word was abrasive in his mouth, and he spat it to the ground as he advanced another step. Him? Run from a child playing at monster? Run from a little girl dressed up in smoke and lace? He would laugh if that damned papillon hadn’t carved that from his flesh.

“Here, you are mine little beast. Scribble your name from my walls all you wish but you are mine.” Desir didn’t scream, it was for them to make music, no but he did scrape his talons across the wall and black seeped through the cracks. It danced, thick and sluggish into words that glittered with flakes of gold in the morning light.

Yuina Mitsumi, Yuina Mitsumi, Yuina Mitsumi,
Yuina Mitsumi, Yuina Mitsumi, Yuina Mitsumi,
Yuina Mitsumi, Yuina Mitsumi, Yuina Mitsumi,

And bleed down the wall.

“Are you even a beast? Those mewling things at least know hunger, but you just lick at the shadow they cast.” Would she run? Desír took another step. His arms were long, and she was close, and the other one, the girl dressed up in lace and smoke would come running once the screaming bent the halls.

The lord of desire stared at the girl, as the ink pooled onto the floor, edges connecting into letters;

Karen Okazaki

And with a rasp that might have once been a laugh, Desír’s arms lurched forward like crooked snakes to ensnare the girl before she could leave him. Again.
 
He wrote the names again, or... names. Yuina's name and her name, together like they were supposed to be, but it was wrong or it was...

I want...

What did she want? Karen didn't know. She didn't know what to do, either. The beautiful stranger wasn't impressed by her, and that was upsetting in a way that it probably shouldn't have been. Did she crave his approval? Why? Why did it matter? The only person whose opinion had ever mattered was Yuina. Not anyone else, not the DDC, not even her own.

But this...

He came closer. Karen stepped forward as well, not a large step, but moving towards him anyway, fixated. Her leg came down with a snap, the knee joint twisting in imitation, shearing, separating, spurs of bone twisting up to reattach it, wrong, all wrong, just like he was all wrong. She wanted-

Another name, ichor on the floor, ink pooling with the splatters of blood, another mixed name, the way it shouldn't be, should be, why-

"No."

Denial. It hurt, everything hurt, she wanted-

-wanted-

-Yuina.

"Not her."

His arms twisted forward and she pushed back, stumbled back, fell back, crooked limb and blood and bone. His arms caught her, bone against bone, scraping, smooth, soft, ah, so soft, I want-

But the wrong names were there, and Karen tore away, leaving pieces of herself behind, blood and bone, letting herself twist sideways, tumble down the stairs, let the bones wrap around her, break, break more, because she was going to have to get up again and protect Yuina, because he could not have her.

Karen landed at the feet of the figure wrapped in a scarlet cloak at the bottom of the stairs, one hand reaching upwards, as if to claim those threads for her own.

Mine. I want her. She's mine. You can't have her. I want her.

"I-"

-love her.
 
She tore. She broke. But she didn’t shatter. That was a shame, Desír felt, pretty little things should always shatter beautifully. If they didn’t, then they would languish and change, and he so hated that. The things he loved, the things he desired should never change. No, no, pin their wings to the wall so they could never fly away.

Desir coughed, wetly, as he creaked after the would-be Grimm-thing. He did not rush, she was in his grasp now and she would never get away, and that made him happy even if she hadn’t shattered.

Desír stooped as he followed the girl’s wild tumble down the stairs. The stairs were low, this whole school was low and tight, his talons scraped against each step. The little Grimm was in a tumble at the hem of a beautifully scarlet cloak. “Good, good. You’ve brought me to her. That’s a good girl. You aren’t complete without the other, you know.” He rasped.

Then, Desír noticed. A belated sort of notice for one who watched, but it was too late to notice sooner. The cloak was empty, and the air was too still.


~~—~~—~~

Yuina didn’t run to Karen’s side as she came tumbling down the stairs, which she felt bad about. But she could, she could, hear it wasn’t the right word though it was like an itch in the ears. It was so much like… like a glob of needing and feeling like a collection of eyes watching from where eyes shouldn’t be, and it was walking down the stairs. She peeked out from behind the staircase, and there it was. It was talking to Karen, which made her feel gross, like someone had just plastered a film of grease on her skin with words alone.

It looked like someone had drawn a person, but only had the odd angles that a shadow could take as guides. Long where it shouldn’t, short where it needn’t, and reaching a hand of claws towards Karen. At that, Yuina stepped out from where she was hidden. She felt a twinge of panic for a moment, because she couldn’t quite remember how she had done it the first time. It was just like a muscle, sort of, or like flexing in a way you didn’t know you could or just like— then Yuina realized that she had already done it.

It was a little quieter, she realized. That needling needing from the walls and floor clammed up as if they had just been shushed by a particularly stern librarian. That Grimm too froze in place. Its skin rippled, and it took Yuina a moment to realize that was because those silver knots that ran through its skin like veins in marble were tearing. Black ichor oozed from the fresh wounds. The Grimm screamed or maybe she was the one screaming, Yuina didn’t know her head just felt full of noise as she drew her arm back, and thrust it forward. A bit like a lance, if her nails were pointier.

Her fingers sunk into the flesh, but it wasn’t like it usually was. Other Grimm evaporated, where this one fizzled against her fingers. It felt like wet mud or sucking tar, pulling her hand in but refusing to let it go too quickly. The Grimm’s neck crackled as it turned to look at her, eyes glittering like a scuffed one hundred yen coin.

“All mine” it said through thin lips and pull-away gums, with a black blood spray as it lifted an arm and brought it down to try to run its claws down her chest.
 
It hurt.

The stairs had hurt. Karen was used to pain, or told herself that she was used to pain, but that didn't mean it was easy to deal with. It just meant it was common. She lay twisted at the feet of the mannequin, Yuina's red cloak above her and the beautiful man coming down the stairs, scraping his way through passages too small to contain him.

He praised her, and she looked up at him. It felt good, that praise, the words of affirmation. He knew she wasn't complete without Yuina, they both knew it. He knew it because he understood. He understood, and he told her she was good anyway, and she-

Had lied to him. A tear slipped down her cheek, because she was so guilty - she wanted to be what he thought she was, so badly wanted it, but she'd lied. To him, she'd lied, when all she wanted-

-all she wanted-

And then it was quiet. It was quiet, and he was breaking, all that beautiful horrible silver knots golden lies, whispers gone. Yuina was there, and her hand was on him and-

-No, she'll kill you-

But he didn't disappear. He turned to Yuina instead, and his words were no longer for Karen, they were for her.

All mine.

No...

No.

No.

Not her.

That was the one thing - one thing - she could not, would not, could not understand. Yuina was not his, Yuina would never be his. He was beautifully right, she was beautifully wrong, he could not-

Karen stirred, crushed bone creaking, snapping. Up, get up- But everything was broken, little fragments of shattered bone lining the stairs, the hallway, the floor beneath her - her bone, cast-off, she needed - more - needed her, Yuina, not his, never his.

She could feel it, the beautiful golden threads, all twisted and wrong just like she was - good girl - his whispers were gone but she was - quiet, always quiet - screaming, inside, because this wasn't about her, this was about Yuina, and Yuina was - in danger, she was in danger. This was a trap, but it had gone wrong and now they were caught, just like the spider's lair, underground, little filaments of bone, and this time it was Yuina who was caught and she was -

Mine, all mine.

-Not his. Not his, never his. Gold twisted through the shattered cast off fragments, shattered and cast off just like she was, but that didn't mean that she didn't feel anything or need anything or want anything or hurt. The strands blazed, twisting into a spider's web of her own, tangling about that upraised arm before he could bring it down, because there was one thing - one thing - that was-

"Mine."

Yuina is mine.
 
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It wanted, it demanded, and it clung to her skin as her fingers pulled across its back, leaving grooves in pale skin. Yuina felt nauseous, as black blood dribbled from the wounds, coating her fingers in tar that held fast like grease under water. Yuina tried to pull away but that blood was just so possessive and that claw hung in the air with the lazy confidence of the cat that cornered the mouse. Yuina felt her body tense, skin prickling against an expecting feeling of skin breaking.

Then, Karen did something. Golden threads tangled in the air, like a clot of spider’s silk which hung forgotten in an empty building, and it spun itself around the things outstretched arm. With a yelp, Yuina yanked her hand back as she stumbled away, the black blood stretching as it tried to keep her attached.

“Can you not wait your turn little beast?” The Grimm said, it would have been a snarl if it wasn’t so wet. It tried to flex its talons, cut through the golden strands but it only served to tangle it further. For a moment the anger lingered, before confusion took its place as it tried to pull its arm free. “What? What is this? You can’t do this![/i]” It scratched at the strands with its free hand, trying to cut it free. Yuina retreated back towards the stairs, the blood fizzling from her fingers and dropping away as it was stretched to thin wires.

“I’m okay” Yuina called, bringing her hands up defensively, ready for another attack.
 
The way Yuina stuck to him was almost too much. He was angry with her, she could tell, and that was sad - but he couldn't have Yuina. She got free, pulling away, and finally the stickiness dissolved from her fingertips.

Up. Get up.

That was hard. She'd forgotten how, and her body was all misshapen, not like it was supposed to be. She didn't remember what it was supposed to be like. He was... beautiful. But she wasn't him. Karen pushed herself up a little, to her knees at least, watching the beautiful man in a golden web.

She wondered if she could keep him here, keep him...

...Safe? Or just keep him? Karen wasn't sure what it was she wanted - but it wouldn't work, would it? No. She'll kill you, she'd said earlier, but he hadn't listened, and maybe she'd been wrong about that, too. It didn't matter, because there was only one thing that Karen needed to be right about. Only one thing, always one thing.

Yuina called back, that she was okay, and that was all that Karen needed to hear.

Words. More words. She had to find them, because he needed to understand. Maybe the words wouldn't make him understand, but the golden strands, the fierceness of mine - he would understand. Somehow.

"Told you... not her."

Not Yuina. Never, never Yuina. He could never have Yuina. It didn't matter how beautiful he was or how much he wanted - Yuina was the one thing that he could not have.
 
“Greedy. Greedy. Not even willing to take but still so greedy.” it coughed bitterly, a spray of thick tar clinging to the strands of web. It stopped struggling as it hung in its snare, and in its placid stillness it watched her. Its eyes were gold, but somehow in its coloration it almost seemed sick. A squeamish sort of green mixed into the inconsistent glittering of its eyes, and Yuina almost missed it. Bone rippled under its skin, writhing like worms in the rain.

Bone tore through, thin uneven shards slicing through collected webbing, cracked as new joints snapped themselves into existence in odd angles along its long arms. It squirmed, trying to pull free from the golden strands, toenails scraping the floor as it leaned forward.

“You can’t have her. I won’t let you.” Ichor seeped from broken skin, skin which curled away from sickly bone.

“Can you keep it pinned?” Yuina asked, flexing her fingers. Everything felt thinner, quieter. That wanting that hung on her heels didn’t hold her quite as tightly, the needing in the air was thin and withering, like she could chase it away with a wave of her hand. Maybe she could. Maybe if she held this feeling, this… lack of feeling it would make the Grimm thin enough.

“I’m going to try again.” She said, her attention turned to the arm with too many joints.
 
"Sorry." It was a whisper. Karen wanted to creep forward again, to... she didn't know. Take the man's hand in her own, maybe, to see if she could offer him some comfort the way that Yuina comforted her. He wanted so much, and if only, if only...

...But he couldn't have Yuina, and if he was determined to keep his sights on her, then Karen had to stop him. So she whispered her apology, and gave her only friend a nod, and wished that things could have been different and maybe this man could have been...

...a friend...

...But he couldn't have Yuina, and she would kill him, and all that beauty would be gone, and she would never see him again.

"I'm... so... sorry..."
 
Was this just what possessiveness was like? Yuina stepped carefully through the weave of golden strands of spider’s silk. Wiry with too many joints, and sharp where it looked to be smooth. It didn’t scream, but struggling returned as she took a step closer, through each motion only seemed to pull more strands of silk to its body, gumming the edges of bone. Maybe that also was something like possessiveness?

“That papillion can’t have you.” It croaked through thick words, black leaking between long sharp teeth. Yuina drew a breath and reached out. The Grimm didn’t flinch away, instead it seemed to lean forward with what little space the web would allow to meet the touch of Yuina’s fingers. She almost drew away, almost second guessed what she had planned, but the tips of her fingers ran along the silver skin that made crooked patterns along its chest. There was a feeling to that skin, almost like dry rotted yarn that snapped against the press of her finger and sent an ooze of black ichor spilling from the opened wound.

Even at that it didn’t try to pull away, though she could see it straining against the web as it tried to pull its arms free. It wanted to wrap her up in an embrace of boney spikes, to break her skin just as easily, but she had Karen. Her fingers slipped through the cracks in the monster’s skin, her hand cutting through the soft flesh beneath. She leaned forward as she pushed her arm up, her fingers reaching for where a heart might be. Feeling clung to her fingers, thick with wanting that made the hairs on the back of Yuina’s neck prickle.

Maybe that was why. Maybe it wasn’t. Her lips parted all the same as she stared up at the long, impossible monster and spoke.

“She’s mine, you know?” Yuina said softly, and for the first time the Grimm spasmed like it wanted to tear itself away.
 
"I know."

It wasn't the Grimm who answered, but he hadn't been the only one listening. How could Karen not have been listening? Yuina was-

-her friend?-

-her everything-

-and her every word was something that Karen couldn't help but strain towards. She pulled herself together, all the little bits and pieces and bones and fragments, something awful, something hideous, something wanted. It was enough to stand on - not easily, but she could get up, rise, stagger her way over to Yuina and stand beside her - not touching-

-never touching-

-because Yuina was special, and if Karen touched her, she might break. She-herself, not She-Yuina. Yuina was strong, but Karen was a shattered thing, all broken bones and broken hearts, holding herself together by a bit of golden thread. Karen could stand beside her, though, where she was meant to be, and look at him, beautiful-him, who she had loved for a moment, who she loved still.

But she would watch him wither, she would watch him writhe, she would watch him suffer, she would watch him die.

For her.

And for me.

Because she is mine.
 
It hated her. It loved her. It screamed against her touch. It held to her skin like tar. It thrashed for its escape, but she knew it didn’t want it. It was so very hungry. It felt so much more than the other monsters, but now with her fingers brushing against the core of it she could feel the emptiness which laced like roots through it all.

Like… the cracks of a hole that could never be filled running through glass. Or… Yuina’s hand closed around the heart of the Grimm and she squeezed.

“You hurt her.” Yuina admonished gently as the Grimm thrashed, all angles and edges, and each movement with less energy than the last. Her fingers slid through its heart, and Yuina winced at the feeling of needles pickling against her skin. Some final attempt to drive her away, or was that too longing?

“That papillion doesn’t deserve…” It’s thin voice leaked between crooked teeth, then its head lulled as its heart broke in her hand. Wind rattled down the hallway of the school building as Yuina pulled her hand from the Grimm’s chest. It’s black blood boiled on her skin, as small prickles of red formed on her fingertips.

“I’m…” Yuina paused. She brushed the palm of her hand against her skirt, though the tacky blood clung to her skin. She looked to Karen. “I’m sorry.” She said, softly.
 
"No." Softly. Ever so softly. Karen shifted forward - not a step so much as a lurch, half falling, half moving forward. She reached out then - only then - and caught Yuina's hand, cradling the red-spotted fingertips in her own as all her otherness faded away and she was-

-not whole-

once more.

She sighed, softly, not daring to close her eyes, just leaning in and holding one hand between hers, watching the empty space where something once had been and feeling the empty space inside where something might have been.

Broken. Incomplete.

But Yuina was there, and Yuina... fixed her. Filled the gaps. Made her something else, something she could be, might be.

"Don't be sorry." I'm sorry. She was so sorry. Let me be sorry, for both of us. Maybe, maybe. It seemed to be over, and only the lingering of the emptiness remained.

...Can't have you...

Because Yuina was hers, and she was Yuina's, and that-

papillon

-doesn't deserve...

Karen frowned slightly, this time in thought and not in tears. "He... kept saying..."

But who is that?
 
Yuina let out a small sigh, a gentle release of air. They were both fine, it wasn’t true, but it was the nice sort of lie to tell yourself. She laced her fingers between Karen’s, her claws fizzling away into a soft hand. She gave them a squeeze, which was its own sort of nice thing.

“It was Papillion, right?” A name or title? “Something else like he was, maybe?” Yuina turned her head to look back to the dead Grimm that lay before the stairs. Only, there weren’t stairs there anymore, but a wal. It wasn’t longing in the air anymore, but if felt like… those confusing moments when you first opened your eyes and you didn’t know what was real and what had only been within the dream.

The light of the setting sun bled through the training room’s windows, the cool evening air whistling between the shards of broken glass.

“They’re someone after us, that’s clear enough.” Yuina said. The Grimm’s body was still there, motionless save for the curling away of smoke as its body began to dissolve away. It wasn’t like Karen, there wasn’t a person beneath the skin of something hungry, but why did it want them? “It could talk. I never thought they could do that.” Yuina said faintly.

“We… should go see the nurse, I think.”
 
Papillon. Yes. Karen nodded, but she didn't know what to do with the information besides agree with it. The afternoon sun was back where it should have been, as if things had never been different. The shards of broken glass were still there, though, which was somewhat of a relief - otherwise, Karen might have wondered if it had all been some sort of strange dream.

Yuina's hand was still on hers, and Karen supposed she should probably let go, but she didn't. Maybe she just wanted to hold on to someone real.

"They all talk," she said, softly. "Just... most people don't understand." Not usually in so much detail, to be fair - most of them were more simple. Still, Karen had always felt like there was something there. Communication, in some sense.

Yuina wanted to see the nurse, and Karen gave her a looking over, frowning slightly. "Are you hurt?"
 
“They always just felt hungry to me.” Yuina said, looking down at her hand. The blood had dried, her blood had anyway, in dark smears across the tips of her fingers where they stuck out between Karen’s. What remained of the Grimm stuck to her arm in thinning patches of quiet needing, but it was only a murmur now and she had always thought it prudent to try to ignore the nip of emotion against her skin. “Maybe I can’t hear it like you can.”

Karen could take them with her, the little ones, which had to feel so heavy. She couldn’t imagine doing that.

“No… I think I’m fine. It’s insides were — it was like touching needles, but I don’t think I’m bleeding anymore.” Yuina looked to Karen. “But how’s your leg?” She asked.
 
Karen shrugged, not wanting to argue the point about whether or not Yuina could hear them. There was the hunger, always, but it was more than that. It wasn't really spoken, but it was always words. She didn't know how to explain it. She wasn't good with words - or maybe she was like the Grimm, and she just wasn't good with people's words.

She could have learned so much, from...

Her eyes shifted back, to where He had been, but there wasn't anything there any more. There was just her and Yuina, and an echo of something that kept calling back as it fell down into the abyss, as if maybe if it called her enough times she could pull it out - or jump in after it.

"I'm - it's okay." She had to bring herself back, to answer Yuina's question. Her leg was fine, now that it was over. Once she transformed back, she always seemed to be... this, again. She wondered which one was the real her, sometimes - maybe she'd gotten it all wrong. Maybe she was a magical Grimm and she'd just learned to appear as a girl.

Someone had to know, didn't they?

"Yuina? I... I want to find them. Papillon." Whoever or whatever it was, maybe they had answers - or maybe they were just another word to add to the collection. Papillon, butterfly, changeling...

Like her.
 
“Good” Yuina said softly, her shoulders falling as she let out a small sigh. Was there more to that Grimm as well that Karen felt that she couldn’t? Did it matter if there was? It had wanted to harm them just like all the other Grimm, even if its emotions seemed more complete. She looked away from the spot on the wall where the body of the dead Grimm should have been but wasn’t and back to Karen.

“Find Papillion?” Yuina said. It would be like the thing they killed, wouldn’t it? Perhaps not full of longing, but maybe something equally empty and needing. Yuina nodded. “Yeah, we should, I think.” The Grimm knew what Papillion was, but they couldn’t ask it now. Still, I had left them with something.

“I think it might be looking for us too.” Yuina said.

—~~—~~—~~—

Light spilled into the room through the open door as the crisp clip of heels drew close. The door creaked as it was pushed open, and a solitary figure slid into the gloom. They paced the room, sliding in and out of the camera’s view, sometimes prodding the ground first with their toe, and other times driving their heel against the ground. This repeated until the figure seemed satisfied, and they knelt to place their hand on the floor. Wood splintered as their hand crunched into the floorboard, peeling it away. Blackness, thick as ink, bled from the newly formed gap and they slid their hand into it.

They did not look towards the camera, nor did they hold what they pulled from the dark up into its view.

“Holding out, were you, Desír?” They said, standing. They walked towards the camera, their shape looming to fill all it could see. Their hand reached past and the camera shifted. “Still, I suppose you didn’t disappoint.” Their eyes burned as brilliant as the midday sun, before there was a click and all became black.
 
They were still holding out.

Karen didn't know how long they'd been in this room now, going over everything, over and over and over again, as if there were something they hadn't seen. There were... so many things they hadn't seen, weren't they? Or were they? She shifted a little in her seat, drawing her knees up to her chest and turning her head, resting her cheek and letting her eyes drift closed, the barest hint of gold between the lashes, glittering in the tears she wasn't shedding.

I wanted...

He'd been beautiful. Her heart still ached, and even Yuina couldn't take that one away. Karen had put her first, her first friend, her first trust - but oh, he'd been beautiful...

...and he'd been nothing compared to what had come next.

===

Voices could be heard, even from outside in the hallway. Karen smoothed out a fold of her skirt, wondering what he would have thought of it, if he'd have thought anything, or if none of it had mattered and it was all just dressing up.

But Yuina was there, and she was beautiful and had enough confidence for both of them - or at least, she had more than Karen did. Karen gave her a tentative smile, but it wasn't enough to banish the shadows. She'd been quieter again, since that last meeting with him, withdrawn back into herself, more like she had been when they'd first met. When she was alone with Yuina she'd still speak, sometimes, but in times like this, she'd prefer to be anywhere else, really.

But they were here to make an appearance, and so they were preparing to enter the main hall of the gala, on display for everyone who

-wanted-

Karen exhaled softly, letting her eyes fall closed before opening them once more, quiet and violet. They just had to hope they didn't disappoint.
 
There was music that drifted between cracks and corners, drifting like a phantom between the lines of voices made indistinct through walls. Yuina felt nervous in that muted way where the nerves buzz in joints of an elbow or a high flutter in the top of one’s chest. She felt a little silly about that, if only because she felt like she had been to more than enough of these sorts of things that she shouldn’t still feel so… out of place being there. Karen too had been… not quiet, but distant? Elsewhere. Maybe that was the word she wanted.

Or, maybe it was just hurt?

Yuina returned the smile before her gaze moved to the closed door. The gala was meant to be a simple celebration of the latest generation of witches, or at least that was what their manager had said when he had handed them invitations. Yuina had seen this gala on TV before, it was an event for witches to be seen at, but Yuina was more than certain that Karen didn’t really want to be seen. Did she?

“Just have to hold on for a few hours.” Yuina said, maybe to Karen, maybe to herself, as she ran her fingertips over the ruffles in her skirt. She looked back to Karen, and smiled again. “If it’s too… much, perhaps we can take some of the sweets and find a hallway to hide in?” She offered, which also made her nerves feel a little less. It always felt better to have a plan.

The door slid open, neatly, and one of the voices from beyond was no longer indistinct. It was cool and sweet, like the air when you just step out of the bath, only its edges didn’t seem quite as soft.

“Its my pleasure to introduce a pair of rising stars who caught my eye just this summer…”
 
Yuina's comment won a small hint of a smile. Karen suspected that they couldn't really do that, but it was nice to think about stepping out where it was quiet and no one could see them, with a handful of sweets in case they got

-hungry-

Karen clenched her fist at her side, pulling her hands away from the fabric just in case she got- In case something happened. It wouldn't do to rip the fabric, after all. She didn't really have time to say anything else, because the door was opening and the crowd was there, and there was a voice speaking and Karen suddenly understood that they were very much on display.

We can't disappoint-

Karen stepped forward, unthinking, lowering her eyes and dropping into a curtsy.

Yuina had always been in front of her, when there were people - but when the Grimm were around, Karen went in first and Yuina stayed behind her, ready to turn them all into shadows. That was... perhaps she'd done it wrong?

Or... perhaps...

...no, she didn't dare lift her eyes.
 
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