reveilation | IC INBOX

[ Today has lasted for a long, long time. Good thing he took the day off so that he could have time to do everything. After pinpointing what Toki and Rei are doing when they ditched the castle, he cleaned everything up and finally comes home...

...

He's still under the happy bonus, along with "can't tell a lie", but he's so tired. It was a good day today though. After changing his clothes to something more comfortable, he goes to the kitchen to make strawberry daiquiri real quick. ]

Kido, where's the lime juice?

[ Kido had spent the entirety of the night before crying, and all of today trying hard not to cry, so she's pretty emotionally spent and had gone straight home to change back into her hoodie and tuck herself away under the kotatsu with two cats in her arms. Probably Hana-chan now that Toki's no longer calling her that, and one of her sisters. ]

If it's not in the fridge, we might've run out. Can you use some other juice?

I guess so!

[ Terry looks through the fridge again to see if he missed it the first time around. But no, he really did... looks like he'll just have to make the daiquiri without it. he quietly starts making two cups worth--both nonalcoholic, so it's basically a tasty strawberry smoothie with a tangy taste. He brings both of them to the kotatsu with two apples, a small knife, and a plate. He sits down, making himself comfortable and starts peeling the apples. ]

Here you go. It's strawberry daiquiri, but it doesn't have alcohol in it.

[ Unless Kido wants to get smashed for some reason, they have rum and vodka in the fridge and Terry can go make an alcoholic beverage so sweet that even Kido would want to drink it. ]

Thanks.

[ If Terry gives her anything alcohol, there'll be nothing holding her back from crying the entire night, unless she immediately passes out. She's only really used to what sake smells and tastes like, only having had a sip of what her dad usually drinks, but that was years ago and it wasn't dessert sweet, so it wasn't to her liking.

She sits up to drink it so it doesn't spill everywhere, rubbing the heel of her palm over her eyes. ]

Is yours alcoholic...?

[ She leans over to sniff his glass. ]

[ It smells exactly the same as Kido's. ]

No. I thought about it, but decided against it.

[ Even though Terry can deal with a cocktail despite being exhausted due to his filter. The floor isn't all that comfortable, so he wants to bring a cushion. He's finished with peeling one of the apples and slicing it, so he leaves the slices on the plate. ]

Wait here, I'm gonna go grab some cushions, since the blankets are all gone...

[ He's not gonna say why though. He hopes Toki and Rei are having a cute honeymoon wherever they are. Terry enters his room and goes through his closet. Yeah, there really are no blankets... No cushions or pillows either.

...

He brings out the kangaroo plush given by Toki and the small black felt cat from Kido and... oh? He doesn't remember seeing a jellyfish plush here. He picks it up, holding it to his chest. Maybe it can be used as a pillow--

Then the audio plays and Terry is startled. The house is quiet, so the message is well heard, even to the living room where Kido is. ]

[ ...It isn't until Toki's voice finishes saying "I love you" and the silence afterwards that there's a clatter from the living room of the plate being bumped but thankfully nothing splitting as Kido scrambles to get out from under it to where Terry is, because it didn't click until that "I love you" and the dread is overwhelming, she can already feel the tears coming even though she can't find the words. She almost crashes into Terry, but it takes everything just to choke out ]

Toki— We need to find Tokidoki before he—-

[ WHAT IS THIS SUICIDE NOTE?!?! TOKI!!!!! She shakes Terry's shoulders with all the urgency she can't convey through words. ]

[ It takes a moment to process what Terry heard too, because he thought Toki was with Rei, having a blanket fort honeymoon on top of the school roof. He already pinpointed where they left as soon as they ditched the wedding, so he wasn't too worried... ]

--Kido, hold on...

[ Despite the shoulder shaking, he tries to pinpoint some things so that he could clarify the message, and Toki's current location with Rei and his intentions. He needs twenty seconds because he's exhausted. ]

[ Cool. Kido is going to just cry for those entire twenty seconds. At least she stops shaking Terry's shoulders, but she continues to hold them with her forehead down on his shoulder so she can have something to stem the tears while she goes through all the worst case scenario. Even if she knew about the whole rooftop honeymoon thing, all she can think about is that rooftops are prime jumping spots and nobody should be allowed up there. She already lost her older sister to that exact same method; she doesn't need to lose a little brother either. ]

[ He snaps out of it and drops all the stuffed animals so that he can hug Kido. ]

It's fine. Toki is with Rei. He's not intending to die. He didn't go anywhere with a desire to die. It'll be okay, Kido. It'll be okay...!

[ He's definitely relieved, but should he really feel happy right now? Not like his body is giving him a choice, but right now he wants to assure Kido that things will be fine. ]

Why would he say something like that...?!

[ Her voice is thick with tears, still crying into Terry's shoulder as she wraps her arms around him and clings tightly. ]

Why would he want to die? Even if it's not today— what if it's the next day? The day after? I can't—-

[ She can't ever make anybody happy enough to think that life is worth living. First it was Terry who wanted to die, and then Rei and now Toki and she hates it, she hates that she can't do anything about it and that anything she does or says won't ever matter. ]

[ It's well into the night, so Terry finally feels that stupid forced happy thing disappearing from his system. Good... good. ]

Calm down!

[ He yells, but hugs her back just as tightly. ]

I just said that he's not going anywhere with the intention to die! He doesn't want to die, Kido. Think carefully--he said that he foresaw it. He probably saw in one of his visions that he's dying soon. It's not... his choice, and he probably didn't want to tell anyone about it.

[ People keep yelling at her to calm down but it always just has the opposite effect of making her cry harder, trying to squeeze her eyes shut tight to stem the tears but they break through anyways.

She'd taken Toki foreseeing his death as him setting a death date. People do those things. They write a suicide note like this recording is, choose a time and place and method and... ]

How soon... [ she whispers, mind reeling, trying to think back to what scared her so much about his message. The "I love you." Toki talking as if he doesn't have a lot of time left, like he has some terminal illness that will inevitably claim his life. ]

Is he going to die? Is there nothing we can do about it? Can you find those sorts of things out?

I can... try.

[ Though he needs to add a disclaimer. ]

I can try pinpointing things about the future, but they're really unreliable since the future can be changed under certain situations. I can try to pinpoint what Toki knows about it instead, on what he thinks.

Please try. I don't care how unreliable or inaccurate— if we can keep it from happening, as long as it doesn't happen...

[ If Terry is unable to get a straight answer because the mere fact that they're trying to figure when and how and what to do to prevent it is something that'll interfere with the death, then that's the best case scenario. Uncertainty is much better in this case. ]

[ Terry nods and does the usual spacing out. It takes a lot longer this time at its maximum cap of thirty seconds, because unreliably predicting the future takes a lot out of him. ]

... Okay, from Toki's perspective, he thinks he'll die from he turns 16. His birthday is on December 28th. He doesn't know how or where it's gonna happen. I tried to dig into it and it's too vague... the possibility I came up with "nature". So maybe it's something weather-related...? Or from how cold it is because it's winter...? That's all I got.

[ Another thirty second crying session, but at least it's lighter now, mostly sniffles. They have until the end of the month to keep Toki alive... He'd apparently stolen all the blankets in the house, so he'd better not freeze to death out there despite all of that. She can't help but worry. ]

He doesn't have much clothes of his own, does he...? He should at least have enough to last between laundry days. The 28th, though...

[ She pulls away from where she'd been holding onto Terry. ]

That's only two weeks. Do we just... make sure he's never alone for those two weeks?

... He's been wearing my clothes all this time.

[ Except the one he wore at the wedding lmao. God. Terry just realizes this, also from the fact that he found this jellyfish plush near his closet. ]

I'm running out of clothes. Other than that, I'm... not sure. I can pinpoint where he is from time to time, but I'm still away and usually working.

[ Apparently they're taking a bath together on the next freaking day in this very house and Terry won't be around for it... so....

looks at kido ]

I want to use Rimi to watch over him, but I feel like he'd smash Rimi to bits. I have a feeling that he hates that sort of thing.

[ Don't look at her. She's not here for the babysitting life. Against better judgement, she's probably going to be tempted to walk out of the house and leave Toki and Rei to drown in the tub. ]

Yeah... I'd hate being watched all the time too. I don't want to do that to him.

[ It's been nice because she and Toki would just naturally hang out a lot, doing nothing but cooking and knitting and lying on the ground playing with cats; if it's like that, things could continue as normal and she wouldn't have to worry about him. Orien's almost always home too, since he can't stand the cold outside. ]

This was something he thought about a while ago, isn't it? Maybe... if he's with Rei now, it won't happen. She won't let anything happen to him. I want to trust in them, but I'm still worried.

[ Rei is also sort of a disaster BUT!!!! she is also a healer. At the very least, Toki won't die of blood loss. Drowning and freezing are still sort of up in the air, though. ]

From the looks of the recording, I don't think Rei knows either.

[ Since it was addressed to her too. He thinks that to all those moments when Toki cried, especially this morning in the bathroom. Maybe he was thinking of this when he was going to get married. Despite how happy he could be, the looming and impending death might have been so much to bear alone.

... ]

Did you... want to talk to him about it?

Yeah.

[ Without hesitation, she wants to talk to him about it. She's lost too many people in her life who she would never see again, and would always regret never saying what she could to them, before it's too late. ]

He left this for us because he didn't want us to worry. But I'd rather have us all worry together and support him, than have it eat away at him all by himself. He shouldn't have to deal with this alone. I won't let him. He's not alone.

Yeah. Sounds good.

[ Terry wipes away at Kido's remaining tears and tear streaks on her face. ]

It'll be okay, and Toki won't die. We'll make sure of it.

Mm.

[ She pulls back and runs her sleeves over her eyes for good measure, wondering if Toki would hate her if she locked him up inside the Velvet Room until December is over. This is how evil villains are created. ]

I don't want him to die. Or anybody else. Yesterday, Jiro and I almost... I'm still so scared of dying.

[ Apparently Orien has Jiro in the medical room right now, but he's been quiet about it since he's the first thing he saw after coming back from the wedding first. ]

... What happened yesterday with you and Jiro that you two almost died?

[ He looks worried. ]

[ Timelines are so weird. We'll just say that Kido brought Jiro in sometime... instead of Jiro crawling his way here from the hospital by himself which he wouldn't do... Everything happening meant there was no time to talk about anything anyways, until now. ]

We went back to Rei's dungeon to make sure we weren't missing anything. I... [ am going to skip a lot of unimportant details, she decides ] We were battling one of the Shadows inside and the building started collapsing. There must have been five floors above us, and I didn't know what to do. Jiro kept us from being buried. Both of us would have been dead if it weren't for him.

[ Here she was, thinking she would only ever die facing off with a Shadow or the Daitengu or murder Terry, but it's so easy to die from any little reason. Collapsing buildings. Drowning in the lake. It's so easy to die and you can't prepare for any of it. ]

[ Humans sure are fragile. Terry should just be everyone's meatshield again even if he can no longer absorb phys. But even then, it won't save people from other things. Terry realizes that, and looks at her. ]

Is he... okay?

[ He was cold to him out of pettiness and they didn't get along. Maybe it was his demigod existence that wanted his opposition to die, but he wouldn't actually want Jiro to die. Probably. Maybe. Either way, Terry does seem worried at least. ]

12/14, action

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