[ There are different versions of Tokyo. Subaru is from one. Kazuya, another. Nikolai Gogol even knows of his own. Infinite copies of the same place, different times. It's entirely possible that the Tokyo that he and Akechi know isn't entirely the same. Two acetate sheets overlaid, millimeters off from each other. Early June. Christmas Eve. It's possible. He's thought about it. He thinks about it constantly.
Perhaps there are other versions of Somnius, too.
Perhaps there's one in which he maintains the lie. Tries to convince Akechi that he imagined it. Tries to claim that he was just saying things to get under his skin. Plays dumb.
Or perhaps there's one where he simply refuses to answer. Akechi has certainly put hard stops on certain topics and told him no more questions would be answered on them. He could do the same. Is well within his rights to do the same.
Perhaps, in those versions of Somnius, he never bared almost all the worst parts of his soul in a gently glowing grove along a hiking path, under the steam of a bathhouse, in a circle of flickering lantern light. He kept it under his tongue. Never learned to trust anyone. Perhaps he's happier there. Or perhaps he's already gone off the deep end.
It doesn't matter.
Here, now– what's the point of lying, of obfuscating?
The walls are closing in. He's tired. He trusts Akechi.
Akechi, who has committed his own crimes against others' cognitions. Who will understand, to some extent – who will probably judge, but doesn't have a leg to stand on to do so. Who's just as rotten as him, at his core, and doesn't even try to force himself to be better than what he is.
Maruki looks at him. Shoulder to shoulder. Unguarded, as he only ever is in private. ]
That won't be necessary.
[ He stands. Moves to the entryway, to slip his shoes back on. Doesn't look back. ]
Walk with me and I'll tell you anything you want to know.
[ That is his only concession to his own innate desire to run away from the truth. He won't. He'll face it. But not here. Not in this place, where anyone who happens to be home can overhear. Not in one of the two safe havens that he has. Out under the open sky. Where he first put Azathoth's mettle to the test, god against god; where he wandered with Akechi in search of a target; where he sat in the palm of a Titan and saw the world from a new perspective. As free as a person can be in a suffocating reality like this. ]
no subject
Perhaps there are other versions of Somnius, too.
Perhaps there's one in which he maintains the lie. Tries to convince Akechi that he imagined it. Tries to claim that he was just saying things to get under his skin. Plays dumb.
Or perhaps there's one where he simply refuses to answer. Akechi has certainly put hard stops on certain topics and told him no more questions would be answered on them. He could do the same. Is well within his rights to do the same.
Perhaps, in those versions of Somnius, he never bared almost all the worst parts of his soul in a gently glowing grove along a hiking path, under the steam of a bathhouse, in a circle of flickering lantern light. He kept it under his tongue. Never learned to trust anyone. Perhaps he's happier there. Or perhaps he's already gone off the deep end.
It doesn't matter.
Here, now– what's the point of lying, of obfuscating?
The walls are closing in. He's tired. He trusts Akechi.
Akechi, who has committed his own crimes against others' cognitions. Who will understand, to some extent – who will probably judge, but doesn't have a leg to stand on to do so. Who's just as rotten as him, at his core, and doesn't even try to force himself to be better than what he is.
Maruki looks at him. Shoulder to shoulder. Unguarded, as he only ever is in private. ]
That won't be necessary.
[ He stands. Moves to the entryway, to slip his shoes back on. Doesn't look back. ]
Walk with me and I'll tell you anything you want to know.
[ That is his only concession to his own innate desire to run away from the truth. He won't. He'll face it. But not here. Not in this place, where anyone who happens to be home can overhear. Not in one of the two safe havens that he has. Out under the open sky. Where he first put Azathoth's mettle to the test, god against god; where he wandered with Akechi in search of a target; where he sat in the palm of a Titan and saw the world from a new perspective. As free as a person can be in a suffocating reality like this. ]