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?
 
Karen didn't respond to the first part that was spoken, because it wasn't meant for her. No, that was for the crowd, and as much as Karen was supposed to be here for the crowd, she had never been good with speaking to crowds.

This one, though, this one was... different. That was why they were having an entirely different conversation, wasn't it? Karen's breath caught as the woman leaned in close, a whisper in her ear that promised... oh, so many things. Mostly, it promised broken promises, and Karen... Karen wanted, so badly, to find out what they would be.

She made herself breathe, just a little bit, feeling the tightness in her ribs, her heart beating against them like something caught in a cage, fluttering desperately. Her eyes shimmered, the golden child for now, and her lips moved, just barely, into a little bit of a smile. Her voice was as soft as the smile, meant for - not only her, but also the one who stood behind her, the one who had always stood behind her.

"Yuina is my favorite."

She had given the same warning once before, to the beautiful man. Beautiful and gone, because he couldn't accept that Yuina was hers.

Do you understand?
 
The smile slipped from her lips, though she did not lift her gaze from Karen. Monarch’s smile returned with a flash, and Yuina couldn’t shake away the feeling that it was more genuine in its lopsided twist, and sparkle of teeth. It even glittered her eyes in a way the first smile hadn’t, as if she had just been let in on a particularly amusing joke.

“Quite a passion within you, my nymph.” Monarch said, pulling her hand back from Karen. “It’s quite the weight on your shoulders, isn’t it, Treat? Perhaps that’s why the audience loves you so.” The woman’s gaze lifted to Yuina.

“Well, how do you feel then?” When she spoke, Yuina could feel her attention like the tip of a finger brushed across her cheek. Goosebumps prickled along her back.

“Karen.” Maybe it was her answer, maybe it was a warning.

“Of course, what wonderful partners you two are.” She laughed, beautifully, and turned away. “Well, come, tonight is to celebrate girls like you, and I certainly can’t steal you away all night.”

Yuina reached out and placed a hand on Karen’s back. She had felt the same thing, hadn’t she?
 
She let go.

Karen felt herself almost step forward, as if following along was the only real thing she could possibly go, as if staying here was unfathomable: Wait, don't go-

She had turned her attention to Yuina, though, and Karen waited, immobile, wondering if she was going to need to-

-to what?

Yuina is mine. Not hers, no matter who she was - she couldn't have Yuina. Yuina was hers, and-

"Karen."

No, that was... all right. Yuina was here. It was all right. Yuina stepped up and Karen felt her hand on her back, between the butterfly-wings of anxiety, and Karen exhaled just slowly, for a moment, and watched the shining one walk away with violet eyes once more. A shiver took her, for a moment, or something like one, and she leaned back a little bit, knowing that Yuina was there, that she would have to be there. If she weren't there, everything would change-

Karen lowered her eyes again, not sure she could stand to look any more. Her voice was soft, no longer anyone else's, but for her friend alone.

"She's pretty."

Perhaps Yuina would know what that meant.
 
“Welcome! Welcome! I’m glad you were all able to join us this evening.” Monarch said, her attention returning to the crowd whose collective gaze had never really left her. But they did clap at her words, there was even a cheer, but none of it felt… organic? As if the applause had been coordinated beforehand, like a group dance where everyone was just waiting for the proper moment to act.

The way the air prickled against her skin, like a loose nerve before a confession… it really wasn’t different from the feeling of the walls at the not-school. No — the feeling of it was different, but it was the same — same —

”She’s pretty”

Yuina froze, just for a moment, and squeezed Karen’s shoulder.

“Yeah. She’s beautiful.” Yuina agreed, pulling her hand away. Just… just in case it got in Karen’s way. Monarch waved to the crowd.

“Now, sit, sit my dears, now that the guests of honor have arrived, I think it’s time to eat, don’t you?” She waved the girls forward, towards a table that sat in the center of the room. “Don’t look so dower my treats, the food will be divine, and I want to hear all about that wretched little thing that was in your school.”
 
It felt like a performance, Karen thought. Except... she and Yuina weren't the players. They were the audience. Everyone else was part of the cast: all the others there, glittering and decisive, applauding on cue to a secret script. Karen wondered if she would know what to do, if she would just... if she could just...

Yuina's words tugged at her, and Karen shook off the feeling. She couldn't just follow along. Then Yuina would be all alone. Karen reached back, recapturing her friend's hand in her own and starting towards the table.

"Don't let go." A whisper, barely that, only for her only friend. Don't let go. I'll fall. I'll fall, and you'll be alone. And I'll... I don't know if I'll be able to find my way back to you. Please, don't let go.

Karen practiced a small, slightly distracted smile. It didn't mean anything, but it looked right on camera. That was what they had been taught, after all. She might not have the script for all of this, but she could play along, and maybe it would be enough that everyone thought they were part of all of this, after all, for long enough that she and Yuina could figure out what all of this even was.
 
If the first one clung, and the one leading them to the floor insisted, then this one was… warm. That was a silly thing to think, given the situation wasn’t it? Maybe it just her that was warm? Yuina laced her fingers through Karen’s as they followed Monarch down onto the floor. The lights followed them as they went, and Monarch seemed to know just how to sway to make her dress fill the air with sparkle and light. Every eye would be on her, if they were capable of looking at anything else.

Monarch swept into a seat as it was drawn from the table by an attendant and motioned for the duo to sit across from her. She smiled as she did so, the sort you have when you know the punchline to a joke and were just waiting on the other person to go ahead and say it already. Yuina slid into the seat that was pulled out for her, not daring to let go of Karen’s hand.

“Let’s have ourselves a private moment, shall we?” Monarch said, with a snap of her fingers. The weight in the room seemed to lift, that feeling of insistence which had been prickling against the bare skin of her shoulders was gone. The gaze of the room lifted and faint chattering filled the room, the announcer said something about a video as the lights dimmed,and Monarch’s gaze only left her when it was turned towards Karen. She never stopped smiling like she was waiting for one of them to say the punchline. Yuina didn’t.

“Thank you for the kind introduction.[/i]” She said instead. Monarch’s smile filled with teeth.

“Come now dear, in this industry you need to assert yourself more than that. I’d hate for you to fade into obscurity before you shine.” She turned her eyes to Karen and she leaned in, her voice turning low as if she cared that they might be overhead. “And, I’m curious so forgive me for prying, what was it like that thing at your school? What did it feel like?”
 
No one was watching them. Karen supposed that should have made it easier. Perhaps, in many ways, it did. She followed along in silence, her hand still caught in Yuina's, not watching the audience in the slightest. The only ones who mattered were Yuina and...

Her.

The gold shimmer murmured, fine light, fine lines, fine wisps of bone twisting their way around her eye in gossamer strands; a half-mask of wrought-ivory, twisting into little filigrees in the shape of a butterfly wing. It might have been a monarch, but no: the lines were wrong. A viceroy instead, an imitation, meant to deceive. Little trails of blood lingered on her cheek, but she didn't wipe them away.

A shadow pulled a chair out for her, or perhaps it was a person. Karen sat, Yuina beside her, their hands twined together beneath the table. Monarch said something about privacy, a line that was met only with silence - but yes, they were alone now, weren't they? Perhaps as alone as they had ever been. It was no surprise that Monarch spoke of him. Karen remembered...

Oh, yes, she remembered.

Perhaps she smiled, or perhaps that, too, was merely an imitation. She leaned in closer to Yuina, resting her head against her friend's shoulder. Forgive me for prying... No, Karen didn't think she would, just as she was certain that Monarch didn't actually want to be forgiven. She reached out her hand instead - not the one that held Yuina's, of course - and placed it, palm up, in the center of the table. The whispers of bone stretched out from her arm, webbing the table, edged and sticky and tinted with just the barest hint of crimson. Her fingers twitched, the spider in the center, lying in wait.

Would you... like to know what it felt like?

When he was broken?
 
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