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[lakebrat]

Hello. You've reached Goro Akechi, known as Frog. Please leave a message.

[Beep.]

[[ooc: WARNING that threads with willowandoak may contain unmarked NSFW. Tread lightly. Blame Sunflowren.]]

Comments

[fogbornphantom]

Magpie agreed to participate, so long as it was Drake's decision and not you deciding for him. Since Drake has agreed, I believe the path forward is at least somewhat clear.

With that being said, I believe it would be in everyone's best interest if Magpie remained with Joker and me. We are the best equipped to handle him and ensure he remains on his best behavior. It would also help minimize interactions with those who rightfully do not wish to associate with him.

I realize that I was... rash, earlier. It was far from my proudest moment. No matter how many explanations or rationalizations I give, that doesn't change the end result.

[lakebrat]

[Without looking across at Ren, whose side he left for momentary privacy when the text from Crow arrived, he frowns down at his phone. What can even be going on in Magpie's head? So long as it was Drake's decision....]

You think it's likely we'll need Magpie further on in the Palace, then? [He's inclined to think so too.]

I'm not going to lie, Crow. You made this far more difficult than it needed to be. You know we have a lot of leaders and a lot of antipathy within the group. This mission hangs by a thread.

[fogbornphantom]

I doubt it would ever be as simple as unlocking a door. The distortion runs deep, and Magpie is a significant part of it. Seeing the conversation in its entirety, I cannot deny that there was no reason to act as he had.

We made our feelings on the matter clear to him.

To be frank, I wasn't thinking in the heat of the moment. Seeing those words set something off inside me. Whether it was fear or denial, I spoke out because I was afraid of what would happen if I didn't. Obviously, I should have waited patiently for Drake to reach us and for Drake to react, but a voice in the back of my mind kept thinking of Glitch and what she might say or do.

Knowing the context, I certainly understand her anger and distrust significantly more, but that doesn't mean I'm happy with her. Obviously, that doesn't justify the way I behaved, but I was also outraged that she believed the mission was destined to fail before it had even begun.

Again, mere explanations, not excuses. I'm sure you can at least understand what it's like to care for someone, to want to believe in the best in them even when all signs point to them being at their absolute worst (and I never once believed those words were justified, regardless of what led to them).

[lakebrat]

[Understand? Oh, he more than understands. His face sets and his lips purse, before he replies.]

I think I know a little about that, yes.

I understand that you were driven to protect Magpie, to preempt Glitch. But especially with the tension between the two of you, it should have been left to me to speak to her, for the same reason you insisted on speaking to Magpie yourself.

I've also seen the whole conversation, for what it's worth. It's unpleasant reading.

[fogbornphantom]

I agree, but I suppose that's the benefit of hindsight. I was not in a clear state of mind, so I didn't exercise restraint as I usually would.

It was so much easier when that tension didn't exist. I did try to extend an olive branch and apologize after the group chat, but she had little interest in hearing what I had to say. But for what it's worth, I've no intention to put you in the middle, as that's a large contributing factor to my behavior in the Palace.

The fact that two people I care about are decidedly on fraught terms, that this has been going on for the better part of a year, and the push and pull that accompanies it.

[It's horrible. Exhausting beyond all belief.]

If it helps, I can provide the conversation that ultimately led to Magpie's actions. Though I never showed him the texts themselves, he was the one to field my frustrations in the aftermath of said conversation.

I'm to blame for all of this.

[lakebrat]

Well, I'd say it's clear enough what happened. Everyone is defending each other. Magpie was defending you, in part. [What?] Glitch has been defending Drake. You defended Magpie. It's the way blood feuds have always gone.

All of us have a history of depending only on ourselves, or on each other. Perhaps it's our nature as Phantom Thieves. Yet we have to work together, if we're to complete this mission.

[fogbornphantom]

Naturally. But that means we're all going to have to do better.

[He attaches a series of screenshots.]

This is the conversation in its entirety that led to the series of events that ultimately brought about that message and all the damage that came with it.

[lakebrat]

Rather than reply at once, Goro looks up at Ren. "He's sent the messages that led to Magpie texting you."

[willowandoak]

Ren, who's been sitting with his legs curled to his chest and tugging restlessly at a lock of hair, looks up sharply, tense with sudden alarm.

"Uh," he says after a moment. "Okay. Cool." It doesn't quite occur to him that Akechi is asking for permission to read it.

[lakebrat]

His mouth tugs a little at the corner. "I mean, do you want me to read them? Or would you rather I not? It's up to you."

[willowandoak]

...God. Ren sends Crow that entire conversation and Crow responds by showing Akechi what Ren said first. He could open his mouth and say, I know how it looks, but Drake deserved all that, and it would be just as clear what he means. All the tension drains out of him as quickly as it arrived. Exhausted, he tilts his head back to stare dully at the rafters.

"Sure. Do what you want."

[lakebrat]

After a moment, he comes over to sit at Ren's side again, sliding an arm around him. "Hey."

[willowandoak]

Ren leans sideways until he's resting his weight against Akechi. A metaphor. His eyes trail down, to Akechi's stupid shelf full of little trinkets that always makes him feel weird.

"Hi."

[lakebrat]

Goro's looking at them too, eyes half-focused on that little Mothman that took him six weeks to get. "Tell me what you're thinking?"

[willowandoak]

"Just. I show Crow those messages and he comes back with, 'Okay, yeah, but remember what you said to me first? So you had it coming.' " He sighs. "He's probably not even wrong, but. I don't know."

[lakebrat]

He squeezes Ren's shoulder, holds out his phone so Ren can see. "Here."

On the screen glows Crow's sad little message. I'm to blame for all of this.

[willowandoak]

He squints at the message, trying to connect that idea to the concept of Crow sending screenshots of that one conversation. He can't make it work.

"...I don't get it."

[lakebrat]

"He's blaming himself." He stares at Mothman, at the pair of sword-wielding Girimehkala that proudly flank him. "For the mess in the Palace, for Magpie texting you in the first place. He thinks it's all on him."

[willowandoak]

"That's stupid," he says, coming to Crow's defense on instinct, despite everything. Then: "Why the motherfuck would he send that conversation, then?"

The one where Ren was too open, and it repelled Crow, like he always knew he would. He remembers it vividly. Voices whisper poisonous abuse in his ears.

[lakebrat]

"I don't know. I haven't read it." But his hand moves gently in reassuring circles. Ren can tell him, if he wants.

[willowandoak]

He sighs again. "Go ahead, I guess." It can't be worse than everything else he's told Akechi, surely.

He doesn't want to look at it again himself, though. He turns his face away.

[lakebrat]

So he opens the first screenshot, and starts to swipe. Almost at once he has to swallow a laugh, at the "pushing people away" evasion tactic. "Sorry."

It doesn't last, anyway. The more he reads, the more the weight of grief weighs on him. i killed wakaba isshiki. i was going to kill my version of you. just have some cops drug him and shoot him in the head. i told magpie....

But Crow's words take him by surprise. What did he do to provoke such a response? I may adore Magpie, but he can be a fucking idiot.

Eventually he has to put the phone down and stare at the ceiling, blinking. i keep seeing futabas face. and magpies when he was little. when they liked me. i hate it. i hate it. "Ah, Ren," he eventually says. "No wonder you ended up with a Palace."

[willowandoak]

"...the fuck does that mean?"

He isn't mad, just. Baffled.

[lakebrat]

"Nothing. Just..." He shakes his head, and pulls Ren close. Then I'll give you some space.

[willowandoak]

That clarifies nothing. Still confused, and still trying not to look at Akechi's phone, Ren settles into the embrace, wrapping an arm around Akechi's back.