The Joker Game: Poem for Everybody's Souls
Mar. 6th, 2015 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerDoctor Who/Persona 2 Crossover
Summary: Tatsuya steps onto the path of destiny.
Word Count: 1795
Rating: K
Author's Notes: Good grief. Both the length of this piece and the amount of time since my last update have been insane. Sorry about that, ~lonelysouls. Coming back with a bang, I guess? Had to take a little break from school, wound up playing a little Persona 2, this happened. (I couldn't figure out a good place to cut it, so.)
As if he wasn’t already having the strangest of days. Tatsuya rolled his eyes as he flicked the lighter idly. First there was that dream, then the incident with the two thugs, and now the Principal was giving him a lecture. Not as strange as it sounds, really. He wasn’t exactly known for being a star pupil, but the things that Principal Hanya chose to tell him…well, he’d been on the receiving end of a great many lectures, and this wasn’t normal for any of them.
That comment earlier, in the bike area…“He’ll be along to guide you soon enough. Enjoy what few moments are left of your youth.” That had sounded like a downright threat. From a supposedly responsible adult, no less. There would be no way to prove it, of course, which just made it that much more threatening. The police—no, Katsuya—would probably dismiss it as just pointing out of the lessening time before Ta-chan would be considered an adult, unable to continue with his irresponsible ways. The ‘he’ could refer to any number of people, and no doubt Hanya would be able to explain it away.
But Tatsuya had heard a number of threats. Occasionally made a couple himself, but only when he chose to wander in the less savory parts of Sumaru City, where they were as traditional as polite greetings, bows, or honorifics in higher society. He preferred to act, not just talk about it, which had earned him some enemies, even within his own school (and especially from those two that had been bugging him earlier). He knew the way threats sounded, the look in the eye and face, and that had been a threat, confusing as it was.
This time, Hanya was taunting him. “‘The one under the star of stolen dreams has no right to have his ideals realized.’ I was told to tell you that. Also, that it’s your destiny.” Then the principal burst out laughing. Not the sort of laugh that was saying ‘haha, that was a joke, aren’t I so clever’, more like the ominous ‘I’m laughing at you because you’re going to die’.
Tatsuya rolled his eyes, not impressed in the least. Until someone acted on them, they were just words. How stupid.
That, of course, just made the principal madder. If the idiot had ever done anything to try to earn Tatsuya’s respect, maybe he’d actually give it, but the guy acted as if he was automatically owed the way most people worshipped the ground beneath his feet. Tatsuya wasn’t most people. But his refusal to just back down and let go of his principles was being taken as a personal insult by his Principal. Well, who cared? Sure, the principal had a lot of power, but his power wasn’t unlimited.
“I’m going to find Ms. Saeko, if you don’t mind,” he stated quietly and sidestepped the man. Being polite had the added advantage of confusing people, since most people weren’t looking for it at all.
His mind was still on the odd dream he’d had as he wandered around, so he didn’t hear half the things people said. Then again, some of it wasn’t worth listening to—more rumors, more confessions of love, more talking about violence and stupid things that had nothing to do with him.
His mind was still in a daze when he’d finally found his homeroom teacher down near where he’d first started. If he hadn’t bothered to move from the bike, she would have found him a lot sooner, with probably a lot less energy spent barely missing each other. “Have you decided what you want to do after graduation?” Well, not really.
Katsu probably wanted him to become a policeman, although he might fall over dead from shock if it ever actually happened. He didn’t particularly care for school, since it was so boring, so he’d rather not continue on with university. He’d probably take the exams, though, just to test himself, see whether he could make it. It’d probably make Katsuya even more furious if he chose not to go and got a good score, but it wasn’t as if he was doing it for his brother. The problem was, that there wasn’t all that much to do if one didn’t go to school. There was only one thing he was certain about with his future.
Despite what Katsuya thought and said, quite bluntly sometimes, he wasn’t planning on becoming a punk on the streets.
His teacher placed a hand on his shoulder, telling him she believed in him, and he looked away. How long had it been since anyone had said that to him? …Father had still been alive, he realized. And Katsu hadn’t been the stuck-up jerk (at least not to this extent) because he’d taken too much on himself and was paying more attention to the things he thought were going wrong than worrying about the things that actually were.
He moved away to stare at his reflection in the surface of the bike. For a moment, he could almost see the smiling reflection of the person from the dream. The one he’d only heard the voice, hadn’t bothered to glance over because there was no need. And a flower. It was gone as soon as it came, and he steeled himself against the irrational sense of loss. I’ve felt that too much. If I knew why, I’d still hate the feeling but…I’d understand. But this emptiness I’ve felt for as long as I can remember…I’m sick of it.
“Tatsuya…why do you put up walls like that? You look like you’re in so much pain that I can’t bear to see it…”
The cruel urge to ask her to leave, then, burned through him and was still. He wouldn’t do that. Ms. Saeko was kind and only trying to help, after all, even if she couldn’t understand, any more than Tatsu could. I’ve lost friends…a long time ago, and I don’t really remember. But even without memory, it’s changed me so much.
He could hear the pause in the air as his teacher was going to speak, but then…
Lisa. Somehow, that girl could appear out of nowhere. He turned away—at least the teacher was less likely to keep bugging him. At least she’d be quieter about it if she did. He let Ms. Saeko ask Lisa what was going on and tried to pretend he wasn’t really there. Perhaps if he thought hard enough about it, he could mask his existence. It wasn’t very successful, judging by the fact that Lisa was asking, “Can I borrow him?”
He didn’t really want to learn what the ‘important business’ was all about.
Surely it required more for guidance counseling than just that. Surely, she would at least need to sign a form or someth-
“Well, all right.”
He started, then shook his head emphatically. Don’t leave me alone, please… But the teacher somehow missed his rather blatant (and honestly somewhat rude, but he was in a panic) signals. She walked obliviously off, leaving him to his fate…
Next thing he knew, the energetic blonde girl was darting at him, ripping something off his uniform. He didn’t particularly care for being touched, but she just had to ignore that, didn’t she? She probably had no idea, no matter how much she ended up staring at him all the time. She looked, but she didn't see.
"You're still wearing this, even knowing about the emblem curse? Sometimes I worry about you…" He decides that if she doesn’t have anything better to say, he’ll leave. As if in response, she remembers why she sought him out in the first place. “Oh, yeah! I got a challenge note from a Cuss High student! They told me to give it to you.” Why her? She doesn’t strike him as the best messenger, never mind the fact that he has no real intention of actually following up on that sort of thing.
She hands over the note, and the instant he reads it, he feels the anger burn through him. How dare they take a hostage? He’d had no intention of involving himself in anything lame like that, but taking hostages, man or woman, is unforgiveable.
He doesn’t really listen as she continues, but when she finally asks whether he’s planning on going alone, she gets his attention. He turns away, flipping the lighter casually. I don’t care how strong he is. I don’t even care that it’s his home territory. He’s going to lose.
“I can show you the way! Take me with you. It’s better than waiting here until the curse gets me too!”
He nearly just gets on his bike and drives off without her. She’s the girl trying too hard and informing anyone and everyone loudly that they’re dating, after all. She’s better than some of his so-called ‘fans’, but the quiet intensity scares him. That, and he’s not quite sure that she doesn’t actually believe that they are dating, rather than just hoping intensely.
Something stops him, though. A whirlwind, impossible memory that never happened, of flowers and soft words and brown eyes that seem to change color like one of those tacky mood rings. Except there’s nothing about the memory that’s tacky, just nostalgic, soft. Sad.
A voice telling him to be nicer. A voice claiming that this is fate, that no one can swim against the currents of destiny.
If nothing else, that almost makes him even less inclined to bring her along, except…
Except there’s a curious hesitance. Memories just out of reach. An instinct to act, below the level of conscious thought, but natural as if it’s always been there.
All the pieces need to be in place before the game can begin, little dragon.
He nods, and fixes her with a quiet, unimpressed gaze that usually has her talking about some nonsense with soulmates but instead, for once in his life, actually gets through to her. She instantly quiets, looking uncomfortable, shuffling from foot to foot. “I don’t care how good you think you are at martial arts just from watching Chinese movies, you don’t get in my way. I’ll handle things when we get there.”
She nearly protests, but all her complaints crumble away when he begins getting his beloved ride ready, ignoring her and anything she might have to say. When she quietly accepts the extra helmet he keeps in his bag, he knows that she’s agreed to his terms as much as she’s capable, and that’s all he can really ask for.
They speed off, her clinging to him, but he can feel a daredevil grin stirring on his lips anyway. For the first time in a long while, he feels alive.
IT'S AN UPDATE!!!
Date: 2015-03-07 04:11 pm (UTC)This kind of really does remind me of the game, so kudos. Also I love your Tatsuya. I've mentioned that, right?
(I also sense some Jojo's references...)
It'd probably be too much to ask for another update until summer, but...could you please not wait an entire year before you update again?
~lonelysouls
Re: IT'S AN UPDATE!!!
Date: 2015-03-13 02:58 am (UTC)You might've mentioned it once or twice.
YOU LIKE JOJO'S TOO? THERE MIGHT NEED TO BE SOME GEEKING OUT OVER HERE
Also I finally might have an idea of how the Persona 2 peeps fit into the Personatown universe, so they might be showing up sometime soon.
Also, yeah, going to attempt to not wait a year until I update again. /sheepish (Though actually *owning* the game rather than just watching playthroughs will probably help my muses out a little.)
~Dreamer~