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arcv: yuya sakaki

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Who: Yuya + you!
When: First half of October
Where: around Aefenglom
What: Picking up parttime jobs, drinking regrettable potions, and going a little magic-mad
Warnings: Local teen boy slowly losing his marbles, lingering Dorchacht suffering

[Turnt-Up Turnips]

[The Coven is absolutely generous, but they can't provide absolutely everything. Yuya's going to need some way to actually make some money. Not a lot, he figures, so when he finds the hiring sign for the turnip shop for a little stint, he goes right away to offer help. There are probably worse jobs than carving faced in turnips.

He sits by the window on the days he's needed, so he can watch the people passing by outside while he digs faces into the turnips. Every one that he finishes, he props in the window sill for display.

But they might be a little alarming. Maybe you'd like to buy a few to terrorize anyone else with.]

[Homesick]

[Most of the excitement of bargain deals and spring cleaning is lost on Yuya, who as neither enough coin nor looking for enough possessions to take full advantage beyond trying to get a few more sets of clothes before he tears through what he has. Except the market's special potions, next to the seance ones, that the shopkeeper promises will let Yuya connect with his friends and family back home.

He falls for it hook, line, and sinker.

It isn't even ten minutes before he's sitting on a bench in a park with one, turning the vial in his fingers. He didn't get a lot of instructions beyond to "think about who he wants to see". Will it let him talk to them, maybe...? So he can let them know he's okay.]

Well, no harm in trying... [So he pops the cork off the vial and tips his head back to drink it down at once, his thoughts on his parents and his closest friends in hopes that it'll prioritize. It's unexpectedly cold, but not bad, and then there's a rush of heat that might be the magic working.

But probably not. The fever crashed onto him immediately, and regret, and then he lets out a groan and tips forward, gripping his head. He flops over on the bench, curling up and gripping the vial with misery plain on his face.]

What? It didn't even work...

[Past Curfew]

[As the nights progress, Yuya finds himself more and more unable to sleep. Sometimes it's the too-vivid memories of what he'd seen in Dorchacht, flashing behind his eyelids. That one's worse in the beginning, but he still finds rest difficult to come as it instead gives way to an agitation. Something tingling other his skin, tense and persistent and ever present in the silence of the night. He just can't take it.

So he throws on his clothes and rushes out the door in tbe middle of the night. He shivers from the cold, for a moment, hopping from foot to foot before he trots with a hurry down the road--snesking through alleyways and climbing over fences and up the sides of short buildings to get around. Occasionally he looks over his shoulder, quickly, before he continues away into the night.

He stops at some point, sitting down and waving his fingers by his knees to play around with making small illusions. Stars and glitter, changing patterns on the ground, then the shapes of his pets, building up to more elaborate scenes that fit within a couple feet.]

[Wildcard]

((For all other shenanigans over the month, feel free to hit me up at discord or

monochromic

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Mm. [She gives a firm, but brief nod, and watches him completely avoid eye contact for a moment. She'd be more amused, if she actually had a sense of humor.

As it is, it's just sort of mildly fascinating. She wasn't here to make friends - she's said that time and again, and she doesn't really care what people think of her, but it is interesting to watch them distract themselves with their own dislike.]

Do you need anything for the injury?

[Yuya pauses, blinking rapidly before he looks up with bewilderment.]

No... it's fine. [He wipes it against his pants sleeve for certainty, checking his thumb again. It isn't bleeding so quickly, so he's sure it'll stop in a second.]

Very well. [Then this is no longer her problem - not that it was to begin with, but if he was going to bleed all over the turnips that might...

... Actually, make them look better, considering what she's going to be doing with these turnips eventually. Actual blood could be very useful.

The paring knife returns to her hand, and, meditatively, she returns to what she was doing. The turnip's "face" slowly comes to life as a fanged creature, screaming in either rage or horror, and it's hard to tell which it is.]

[Don't bleed on the turnips, Maria...

Yuya carves more slowly as he goes back and forth cleaning his thumb. Frankly, all his carvings are a little horrifying so he's not losing a lot of quality like this, but he still scrutinizes it.

He purses his lips, not looking up.]

... You're not still going out this month to kill people, are you?

[It wasn't an issue in Dorchacht, but this is a new month. And there's a new group of people who are going to be coping with their changes.]

[Ah, this again, of course he jumps right onto the elephant in the room. There's a tiny, frustrated twinge to the corner of her lips, but then she smooths it right back out. She's tired of repeating herself, so she'll just... not, anymore.] Yes. Since that seems to be the only answer you want to hear or understand. I will be out during the full moon this month, as well, as I was a couple moons ago.

Uh--[Yuya raises his brows.] You made it pretty clear you'll jump to killing any monster you think is enough threat for being feral.

[He gestures pointedly with his turnip.] If you're doing it to protect people, why don't you work with the city and try their methods?

And I will. [She says it like it's the simplest thing in the world, but still like he's being too singleminded.]

Tell me, child, how many Monsters are you protecting from it now? How many Bonds do you have? How are you working with the city and trying their methods?

I asked you first. [He leans forward with a frown. So she can answer him if she wants to get anything in return.] But I'm not the one going out and deciding who has to die like I know better than everyone else.

[He has a lot of concerns on the extremism of the method, here. It isn't like you can just take back ending someone's life.]

Oh? But if you're choosing not to help the Monsters, when you could have, then how are you going to feel when they hurt someone else, and knowing you could have prevented it? Ah... and if you are a witch without any Bonds at all, then you will have chosen to explode, and by then... you'll have chosen to have a higher kill count than myself.

[She glances up, then, from where she'd been sort of disinterestedly carving the turnip.] Do I need to take you as a danger to the population, as well? Or are you doing everything you know to prevent a tragedy?

[Yuya sucks in a sharp breath, blatant fury on his face. The poor turnip in his hands is squeezed to the point his knuckles turn white.

He's... being baited, probably. He closes his eyes and breathes out slowly.

He opens his eyes, staring at her levely.] I didn't say anything like that.

[And he's not going to try and prove himself before she will.] How many of the people you're supposedly protecting have asked you to do it this way? Why can't you help monsters in a way that doesn't kill them and create another tragedy out of the one you're trying to stop? If that's your best, how many people are you really saving?

[So it's battle of the questions, then.]

[Well, at least now he's asking a more interesting question. One that isn't just the same questions she's answered over and over again and doesn't want to repeat herself on.] Four of them directly, so far. Two before I even said anything, two after, and I have my suspicions of a fifth that would happily seek me out before killing people. If any others do the same, then that is their choice, and I will be here. So yes, there are those here that would much rather die than see themselves lose control.

[Oh yes. She has murder pacts with some of the Monsters here already. Both her roommates, in fact, and a few others.] It only takes one to kill many. A single beast slaughtered his whole family. We discovered it when we found his daughter, missing an arm and most of her face, screaming and bleeding in a gutter. When we returned to their home, three other of their children and his wife had soaked the floor of their home through with enough blood and viscera to squelch beneath your boots, their corpses half-eaten by the beast the "father" of the family had become. That... was four lives that could've been saved for the price of one, though of course, I'm sure every single one of those family members would've stood between the blades of a Hunter and the Beast, even as his claws and fangs descended on their backs. [She gives a half-roll of her shoulders.]

Are you sure your throat is safe from that which you stand in front of with your back turned, busy worrying about me?

Edited 2019-10-18 04:29 (UTC)

[Yuya's expression crumples a little at her graphic explanation. But he squares his shoulders and stand strong.]

It's as safe as it'd be with another human. [Monsters can kill but so can--so do people. He's done so much worse. But this is really why he can't stand that name, because these non-humans aren't just scary creatures that cause terror in their stories. They're people.]

What about restraints? Spells to knock them out, any techniques for bringing them back around? Have you looked into any way to help them when they lose control, before they hurt anyone, that doesn't involve killing them? Or did you just--decide they weren't worth it? Because some of them are so afraid of that happening they said it's okay, you can't still find a better way of helping?

[And here is the part where she sighs. Same old argument, they still keep missing the point.]

You've got yourself so worked up over this. Like I've actually even hurt anyone. Why are you so convinced that I have, and that a threat isn't meant just as much to be a deterrent? I have had the Monsters here spill my blood, and yet not a one has been killed yet, you know.

It's their choice whether they take care of themselves or not. Just like with the Witches. It's their choice to put themselves in a safe place, away from where they could harm someone. It's not my job to babysit them. So no, I will not reneg on the threat, but it's not as though I've needed to act on it yet.

Be--because you said you would and you keep justifying it! [He gestures wide in disbelief. Maybe openly talking about how willing you are to kill doesn't do wonders for people not assuming you're a murderer.] I don't know what else you're doing because you keep giving me excuses about killing them instead of anything else that could help more people. Who else do you even have involved in this?!

[Sigh.] You're the one who keeps bringing it up. You're so convinced that's all I'm doing because that's all you've asked about; every time you try to ask about alternatives, you keep circling back to the accusations, even if I said I haven't had to hurt people. What I am doing is leaving well enough alone until people start getting hurt. What I have done so far is sit with Merrow that tried to drown a man, and then myself, until she calmed back down.

[Delicate eyebrow raise.] Now, what have you been doing to save them? You never did answer my question whether you are a threat to the population yourself or not.

[Yuya blinks slowly, his shoulders sinking--and then he glances away. "Sit and talk to the person that tried to kill me" is, honestly, exactly the kind of thing Yuya himself would do in that situation. It's unexpected.

He looks back up at Maria.]

I'm not a threat. [He says it with an absolute resoluteness, heavy and determined. He won't let himself be the danger he was before. He had his mind made up long before Aefenglom to be someone that helps, not hurts.]

I haven't met any monsters that dangerous. [He folds his arms loosely.] I mean--they don't seem like they need it. We're kind of a different situation, being turned into things, but the people that have lived here aren't out of control.

[For his debating, he's not even remotely worried about the monsters needing that degree of help to keep their urges (if they're really that bad) under control.] I was with everyone helping the resistance in Dorchacht, so I've been trying to do what I can for the refugees that came with us. They're the ones who need the most help after everything they've been through.

[There's a moment where she watches him - his words have some meaning, but she also seems to investigate whether she should take him at simply that... before merely looking back to her turnip.] The native Monsters here don't have access to these watches, do they?

[She knows what she was levying a threat against. It wasn't the people that knew how to live with it, though if they become a problem, then that will be its own solution. It's the ones who try to hold onto their humanity, and make the problem worse. It wasn't the nature of Beasts that was the real problem in Yharnam.

She wrinkles her nose, either way, at the mention of Dorchacht.] Strays adopting strays. Are you worried about them, too, then?

Wh--of course I am! [He's a little thrown by the question.] They were...

[He pauses, expression becoming tight. And then he shakes his head to push his thoughts back into focus, looking a little distant.] It was--the way they were being kept in the basements, I've never seen anything as bad as that.

[It's still harrowing even as a memory. Yuya covers his mouth.] Some of them are so far gone. They need help. The homes are just a start.

Hm, then you come from a very gentle world, indeed. [Certainly, what she'd seen of the auction, of the breeding grounds, of what was going on with them was horrifying to an average person, but while it wasn't the same, her patients in the research hall were dealing with their own... horrifying circumstances.

Really, though, he sounds like he's changing topics a bit, so she'll go along with it.]

You're not going to be able to save them all. You may not even be equipped to help many of the ones here. And those that are here are just the tip of the iceberg, are they not? There are still many back in Dorchacht. Those "farms" - the orphanages that were raided, those were not all, and the number brought back was very few compared to the vast expanses within that auction. I don't know if you saw within the actual building they were holding their sales at.

[She knows, because she did go in there; walked willingly through the door to see the extent of it. She learned of the breeders and sellers and helped pass that information along, even if, ultimately, she didn't end up doing much there, and none of it she'll admit to, but burying her nose in books.]

It's not really that... [But forced breeding is harrowing, locked in cages and their bodies talked into having children to be sold against their will...

He wants it to be more gentle, probably would have believed that easily until a month before he arrived. Before he knew his hand in damaging it.

He sits down slowly.] I saw where they were--were forcing them to have children. [He doesn't even want to call it breeding.] I know I can't help them all... but I helped some of them escape. We helped them change things, even a little, the resistance. We can keep doing that here. Not being able to do it all doesn't mean I can't do anything. It still makes a difference.

[Other people are stepping up, too, so he knows he's not alone. And many of them together can make a bigger difference. People more equipped for the most injured will help them, but that doesn't mean he can't offer a hand the same.]

Mm, yes. [It was a farm, in all of the ways and implications of that word. Breeding stock to be used or sold to meet the demands of a populace. The auctions were livestock auctions. She knows, she saw it all firsthand. Talked to the "breeders", acted coy about potentially doing business with them in order to learn where their farms were located. She knows, she saw, she did it anyway. It was terrible, of course, but her stomach is made of tougher things than most people here, she's found.

Toby helped remind her of that.]

Then, go forth and help them. I assume there's nothing stopping you. Aside from perhaps wishing to finish these turnips you are carving. Gifts for the children, maybe?

I am! So are others--we're fixing up some houses by the harbor for all of them, so they'll have proper homes.

[And then his gaze drifts to the turnip basket and he deflates a little.] But I need money for food. And clothes.

[The coven doesn't provide everything, and helping the refugees, while feelgood, doesn't provide any stipend.

He's been swapping between the same two outfits since he got here.] I don't actually know what the store's owner is going to do with all of these.

And so you are here. Would you not prefer, perhaps, a stall out in the markets? I'm sure a vendor might give you space there, or if there is an abandoned one. Perhaps if you included a sign, indicating it is for charity. The turnips may be a bit... lost, just sitting in the windows of this place.

[Look, that's her helpful suggestion. She's just here to carve heads to stick on pikes around her walls.]

... Uh. [Yuya blinks slowly, looking down as his turnips, then back at Maria. Just... confused.]

No, he's paying me to carve turnips for him. It's by the hour. [To sit here and carve turnips, not sell them. Wait--] Why are you here carving turnips?

[He just. Assumed she was also hired to do the legwork for whatever the turnip guy wants to do with these scary carvings to promote his business and tradition.]

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