6th Inversion [Vine - Text/Accidental Video]

[ritsu_kouyou]

[The Vine unfurls to show the following letter:



A minute or so after the letter is sent, the mirror opens to show Akiha's bedroom. The fireplace is roaring and Akiha is sitting on the floor before it. Her knees are pulled up and she has her face buried in her arms, black hair pulled back in a ponytail. If one looks closely, her shoulder's shake every now and then.

Clearly, she's oblivious to the mirror's activation, but the Vine and Akiha never did get along...]


[Sent privately to Gal]

Comments

video

[grandtheftmecha]

HEY! AKIHA!

[ She doesn't seem to notice how out-of-sorts Akiha seems to be. ]

video

[ritsu_kouyou]

[There was one voice she didn't want to hear right away... but she knew it was inevitably going to happen. And yet, she still flinched as Katina yelled, but she doesn't look up.]

What?

[grandtheftmecha]

[ ...well, cutting the volume a bit, but she's still clearly angry. ]

What the hell was that?!

[ritsu_kouyou]

[Playing dumb - GO]

...an apology.

[grandtheftmecha]

Wrong answer! You know what I'm talking about!

[ritsu_kouyou]

[No, no, NO! She is not talking about this with Katina over the Vine. And certainly not so soon.

...only one of those she has any control over. So she looks up, firelight catching momentarily on the wetness upon her cheeks, before she dismisses the mirror.

Now she waited.]

[grandtheftmecha]

Hey! Hey! You almost killed me you know!

...

[ Dammit. She can't just yell at her over the vine like this.

...is her front door locked? ]

[ritsu_kouyou]

[The mansion is pathetically easy to get into. The front door is never locked before 8pm. Katina can easily find her way inside.

She might even notice the dried blood splattered on the tiles in the entry way, concentrated in one area. Kris is still asleep and Lambda was told not to interfere if anyone came after Akiha... so Katina has free reign of the mansion at the moment.]

[grandtheftmecha]

[ As much as she would love to start kicking doors in - and she almost does - Katina knows that other people live here, so she can at least restrain herself that much. Instead, she starts to open doors, working her way methodically through the mansion, and scowling all the harder to make up for not breaking things. ]

[ritsu_kouyou]

[All signs indicate that Akiha is on the second floor and being as the mansion is only partially finished, there are only two rooms on the second floor - on opposite wings. One clearly shows no signs of having been lived in and the faint crackle of a fireplace can be heard from the other wing.

The door is closed... but unlocked.]

[grandtheftmecha]

[ Katina follows her ears (eventually) when she hears the fireplace. While she knows there are others here, it's a better lead than stomping around downstairs.

Reaching the door, she takes a deep breath, then pushes it open and just glares straight into the room, not saying anything in case she's wrong about the occupant. ]

[ritsu_kouyou]

[The door opens to a suite-like room with two smaller 'rooms' within - a private sitting room and an archway into the bedroom proper. The first thing Katina will notice is that it's warm in the room - very, very warm - and quite girly.

The next thing she notices is Akiha still sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace as she had been on the Vine. Only she's sitting up and looking into the fire as opposed to over at the Vine that grows next to the couch immediately behind her. The girl glances back over her shoulder at Katina briefly before looking back to the fire.]

[grandtheftmecha]

[ It's winter, so having the heat turned up doesn't strike Katina as particularly odd, though still too sauna-like for her tastes.

She catches Akiha's glance, only barely keeping her anger in check, but it shows clearly in her own eyes. Katina steps into the room uninvited, eyes locked onto the girl, stopping a few feet away from her. ]

We're talking. NOW.

[ritsu_kouyou]

I know.

[Akiha's voice is quiet as she responds.]

...have you been healed? If not, I'll see to it myself.

[grandtheftmecha]

I'm healed enough, as long as you've got yourself under control.

[ She taps her foot against the ground. ]

So what the fuck happened there?!

[ritsu_kouyou]

I... succumbed to my inversion impulse. [She hunched her shoulders forward.]

I'd been on the edge of it for days, I think, because I'd been stupid. I think... No, I'm pretty sure I went to you looking for a fight, looking for an outlet. I didn't think I'd invert.

I should've known better.

[grandtheftmecha]

[ Well you sure made a fine choice. At least she wasn't as permanently traumatized as some people would be. ]

So you're an idiot! Okay, I get that.

I have no idea what 'inverting' or any of that shit means though! I don't want deflections or half answers, just tell me what the hell happened!

[ritsu_kouyou]

[She runs her hands through her ponytail before getting to her feet and finally facing her first victim.]

I'm half-demon, Katina, and the origin of my blood is very old and very powerful. When I say I inverted, I mean that the demon aspect of my blood took control. It's the worst thing that can happen to any Tohno and is usually a death sentence... because the odds of regaining control is neigh impossible.

...this is the second time I've inverted.

[And thus the second time she's regained control.]

When inverted, I only desire to kill, destroy and terrorize. I'm a monster capable of killing in an instant with absolutely no remorse. Taking pleasure in it.

...I think you kind of figured that part out.

[grandtheftmecha]

[ FINALLY. With Akiha spilling the beans, Katina listens intently, her anger turning to focus as she processes everything. She's not really surprised by the half-demon revelation, since it was either that or possession in her mind.

Of course, she catches the implication of how well she's managed to bring herself back. ]

Yeah, that one was pretty obvious when you humiliated me and nearly sucked out all my blood.

[ Her tone's more bitter than angry. ]

[ritsu_kouyou]

[Akiha looks down and bites her bottom lip for a moment.]

It was... so hard to not drain you dry. It had been over two weeks since I'd had any blood - a self-imposed fasting. That was my stupid, prideful mistake.

[grandtheftmecha]

What... why? What the hell kinda good would that do?!

[ There's a whole lake of it right? Katina doesn't actually know crap about it or anything that happened regarding it. ]

[ritsu_kouyou]

I said it was stupid and prideful!

[She crossed her arms.] I used to drink blood almost daily from Lake Sanguine to control the bloodlust I... acquired from my brother. But--

Do you recall the Crone and her riddles? Solving one of them imparted to me the source of the blood in the Lake. And it made me sick. I couldn't drink it anymore.

...and I sometimes do this, where I try to convince myself that I can just banish that part of my blood and not have to live with the pain and the cravings. And I'm usually fine, but this place... this Garden...

[She shakes her head. She drew herself too thin.]

[grandtheftmecha]

[ Deep breaths. She takes a deep breath, and lets it out as a growl. ]

So you're already drinking blood from humans, right? Just how bad is it that you can't do it to keep yourself from flipping out and attacking people?! You freak out over something like that and... and...

[ Akiha already admitted that it was stupid so what else could she add? ]

More and more trouble every fucking day.

[ritsu_kouyou]

It was easier at home, when I just got blood from the hospital to control the bloodlust. That isn't part of my inversion impulse. Neither is the insanity you saw. The Crimson Red Vermilion is very controlled.

Those others? I absorbed them from my brother. I've been trying to find ways to mitigate it for a year now. [She ran her hands through her hair again and growls in frustration.]

I will find a way to make myself drink from the Lake again. I just wish I didn't have to drink the Queen's blood. I don't like all those darker urges coming out.

[grandtheftmecha]

[ ...how the hell does the Queen bleed that much anyways?

No, magic. No thinking about magic. It'll just confuse her more. ]

Absorbed? ...tch. Doesn't matter to me where they came from, but you better control it, whether you have to drink from that bitch's stupid lake or find a bunch of volunteers.