RP [Illi] Doki-Doki Channel!

There were people, but what would a gala be without people? Quieter, probably. Less… glittery maybe. Was glittery the word or was it glitzy? No, the camera flashes as she raised her hand to the sparkling crowd seemed very glittery. They wouldn’t need an announcer without the people, they’d just have the hall and… she supposed they would still need the musicians. Yuina didn’t really mind them.

Yuina stepped forward as she had been directed to by their manager, light on her feet, her fingertips just brushing the railing, her gaze on the crowd but never really direct. To seem there but somehow just beyond. That’s what her manager seemed to think that’s what it would show anyway. The eyes of the crowd were on the two of them, and a polite applause filled the room. A woman stood next to the man holding the microphone, her dress embroidered with the wings of a butterfly.

Flakes of gold in eyes of amber, brilliant white teeth in a perfect smile. When she moved and the stones in her dress sparkled, all eyes turned to her. That part Yuina didn’t mind.

“Lovely, aren’t they? It’s always a treat to see the new stars shine so brilliantly.” The voice was beautiful, and almost sounded like it lingered just on the edge of laughter. “They’ve been truly marvelous, going well beyond what could ever be asked of two so young.”

“Come now, don’t be shy,” The woman held out her hand. Cameras clicked. “Let the crowd have a good look at you, ah.”

“Mitsumi, Karen and Okazaki, Yuina.” The original announcer filled in. The woman smiled.

“Beautiful names, aren’t they?”
 
Karen had never really feared danger.

That was why she walked forward - because they were in terrible, terrible danger. She knew it, just as she knew anything. The crowds should have frightened her, but they weren't really people. They were bystanders. They were here, and they only mattered because every single one of them was in terrible, terrible danger.

She tucked one hand behind her, not-quite-hidden in the folds of her skirt. Maybe only Yuina could see it, but Yuina was the one who needed to see - the slightest of gestures; stay back, careful. Please, please, be careful. Karen's other hand moved forward, taking the one that was offered to her, bowing over it not quite enough to kiss, as if greeting a monarch for the first time.

Her eyes drifted, embroidered butterflies catching her gaze, wings stilled by embroidery threads, all tangled. Her head raised, her eyes met the others - amber and gold to gold alone, shining: hunger-malice-desire - but they didn't need to speak of these things, not in the words that hung unspoken.

Words.

"Do I... know you?"
 
Wanting was such an odd thing, wasn’t it? Her hand was thin, her fingers long, and nails so finely polished you almost didn’t notice they ended in points. That was true about wanting too, wasn’t it? When it soured its manicured parts turned sharp at their edges which drew blood from all it brushed. Yuina’s own hand hesitated at her hip, her gaze on the nails. Did she want…?

Karen swished past her and took the woman’s hand. The cameras below snapped in appreciation, and the woman’s smile didn’t change. The flakes of gold in her eyes sparked as she looked down at Karen, and freed from that gaze Yuina simply felt uneasy.

“Know me?” The woman asked, her voice low. Personable. Like for this moment Karen was the only one in the world that mattered. “You’ve seen me before on TV perhaps? Ah I know, didn’t you two perform during the NKA’s festival? Perhaps we spoke after that?”

Monarch leaned down so she was level with Karen, and she spoke softer still as if she meant for Yuina not to hear.

“You were my favorite, you know? It was a shame to see you restrain such beauty.” Monarch’s eyes betrayed her, or it was never meant to be hidden. Her gaze turned back to Yuina as if looking for a reaction, but all Yuina felt was a tinge of jealousy fizzling away against her shoulders. For a moment, Monarch’s smile was teeth, and the eye at the heart of the butterfly wing twinkled, as if they were the only things worth watching in the room.

Did… Monarch feel the same to Karen as that thing in the school?
 
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