ɪɴʙᴏx [ᴇxᴘɪᴀᴛɪᴏɴ]

[chemex]

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[orphne]

[It tickles a little where he's mashed himself up against her neck, but she still doesn't move until he does. Even then, it's only to huff a little breath through her nose in almost a laugh as she turns her head to offer him a small smile. It's still lacking the brightness that had seemed to come so easily to her, but at least it's a smile. It might even be genuine.]

Hey. Sorry for falling asleep.

[chemex]

Mmnuh, 's okay. [He rolls onto his back, stretches, stares up.] I did too, I guess, mm?

[orphne]

Yeah.

[No judgement, just a statement of fact. They both just fell asleep on the roof together, and you know what? They needed it after the day they've had.]

I'd say let's do this again, but I don't think the roof is the comfiest place.

[A joke, kind of, but she can't quite land it right without being able to summon one of her normal teasing smiles to her lips. Eh. Close enough.]

[chemex]

[He just hums, shaking his head.] Not really, I dunno if my spine can do this again. [He reaches over and taps the back of his knuckles against her shoulder.] But naps, I can do.

[orphne]

Mmm.

[Skill issue. She could sleep here fine if she had to. Again, not the most comfortable, but not the least, either.]

Are you gonna go back to jumping around the buildings again?

[chemex]

[He frowns, thoughtfully.] Not after napping on the roof. Spine, and all. [A laugh, short and not entirely humorous.] Nap probably did me more good than bad attempts at parkour, anyway.

[orphne]

[She hums again, not necessarily in agreement, just thoughtfully.]

Stuff kind of seems easier to handle after a nap. Or maybe it's just easier to find the energy after.

[Said energy is eluding her right now, but in general it's pretty good. A soft exhale through her nose, and she closes her eyes, letting her head fall back against the roof again.]

I feel like I've been tired for a long time.

[chemex]

[He rolls onto his stomach, now, kicking his feet into the air like a school girl.] Naps are good for little recharges. I used to take a lot of unintentional naps because I'd fall asleep doing my homework.

[He watches her put her head back down, and reaches out to pet her hair.] Just... sleep deprivation? Or like existential tired?

[orphne]

The second one.

[She doesn't want to drop all the stuff about Nyx on him -- that's a lot to try to explain, and even if she had the energy to want to explain all of that, it doesn't seem fair to dump on Akira after everything that's already happened. She just sighs again and shifts just a little to make it easier for him to reach her hair.]

...Dazai-san and Chuuya-san would braid my hair, [she ventures after a moment, brows furrowing slightly.] It's hard. Trying to make sense of how they both act around me, compared to what I saw in the bar today...

[It's just impossible for her to reconcile.]

[chemex]

[He reads the motion as encouraging and keeps petting, threading his fingers into the ends of her ponytail.] I suck at braiding, [Softly.] ...and it's a lot. When people you think you know act suddenly differently.

[orphne]

...Yeah.

[Ikutsuki springs to mind, and she makes a face of purest disgust at that memory. So much of what SEES had been through was his fault, after all, and he'd pretended to be their mentor, their friend.

Surely Dazai isn't like that, though, right? She shifts closer to Akira and opens her eyes, gazing up at him.]

Speaking from experience?

[chemex]

[About that,]

[Akira goes very specifically quiet, but nods.]

[orphne]

How did you deal with it?

[She reaches up and lets her fingers brush against his cheek, hoping the touch can ground him in case he's stuck in a memory.]

[chemex]

[Her hand is well met, as his vision was starting to tunnel just slightly, the edges of it looking grey like the interrogation room, silver like the bulkhead wall. He sucks in a startled breath and turns to her, humming until he unsticks his jaw.]

Not well, ha.

[orphne]

[Her lip quirks up just briefly in the hint of a humorless smile, and she turns her hand to let it cup his cheek for a moment. So much for getting advice.]

I'll try to do better.

[She lets her hand fall back to her chest, feeling her heart ache.]

I guess I don't know if I should reach out. To Dazai-san or Akechi-san. Chuuya said it helped, but... I don't think either of them think that.

[chemex]

Dazai I wouldn't know, given most of my conversation with him he was acting like a twelve year old, but... Akechi sort of always acts like a twelve year old. Dazai is just one in the midst of a depressive sugar rush, and Akechi is one trying really hard to look threatening when he's kind of just an angry chihuahua.

[orphne]

[She almost laughs at that, simply from the wording, but can't quite manage to summon up the laugh itself. It's just a weak huff of air through her nose.]

That's what Dazai-san always calls Chuuya. An angry chihuahua.

...Did Akechi have an Arcana? For you, I mean.

[chemex]

[He chuckles, quietly deciding he ought to meet this Chuuya guy. The smile lingers until she asks after Akechi's Arcana, and it fades into curiosity.]

Mmn, yeah. Justice.

[orphne]

[She makes a noise of recognition and realization.]

The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed, [she mutters to herself, lips twisting into another wry, humorless smile. A joke that isn't at all funny, but made for her own sake. It's what the Appriser -- Ryoji -- kept saying when they were fighting, changing forms and Arcana. Mentally, she shifts to the appropriate Persona, reaching out to the angel.]

Melchizedek.

[Which of course doesn't summon him, because she's not trying to; it's just a statement. That's the Persona she has with her that matches him.]

[chemex]

[He isn't so sure he wants to know what that means regarding her Justice Arcana, but he doesn't question it, just watching her reach inside and call upon, to the minimal extent she's able, the appropriate Persona. It's interesting. He doesn't call out to the demon, but he does close his eyes to think for a minute on who he had, of Justice.]

I had Metatron, for Justice, last time I was in the Metaverse.

[orphne]

[Her hand closes into a gentle fist over her heart. Melchizedek had been the Persona she'd been able to fuse after spending time with Ken. Briefly, she wonders if the key to his old house was still in her room where she'd left it. What injustice had Akechi faced, or what had transpired in his life to make him be that for Akira...? Questions that are a little too personal to be asked easily, she thinks.

But she blinks in some confusion, mentally flicking to Metatron herself.]

I have him, too, but he's not Justice. He's the Aeon.

[The Persona she'd gotten from Aigis.]

[chemex]

Aeon..., I didn't have that one.

[It's interesting, to talk to someone else with multiple. He wonders, idly, if that's a contributing factor to why he finds Kotone so easy to talk to.]

[orphne]

Mm... it was kind of special. It was the same number as Judgement, like... next to it. [She holds up both hands side by side as if that could somehow illustrate her point, but of course it can't, it's so hard to explain these kinds of things.]

By the time I unlocked it, things were kind of busy. I never got around to asking Theo about it.

[She drops her hands to her chest again, the XXII pins in her hair glinting in the sunlight. She'd had the pins for a long time, but never really got the significance of them until the past year. She'd just liked the design when she'd bought them.]

[chemex]

[He hums for lack of a proper response, and glances at the pins when they shine, taking a moment to read them.]

...ah, the Fool?

[orphne]

That's us, isn't it?

[She manages a grin, faint as it is. Sure, she gets the idea behind the Arcana itself -- that had been one of the few interesting lessons that weirdo school nurse had given -- but it had always struck her kind of funny with the double meaning.]