this is where the bruises come from
this is where the game gets ugly.

Confession time: sometimes, on shitty, shitty days, Yaoyao thinks there’s no way Kei feels for her anything remotely close to what she feels for him. How could he? He’s sweet, normal, human, soft-hearted. Grounded. Real. Where she’s… y’know. Unnatural. Scary. Weird. A freak, an aberration, an unholy nightmare of evolution and maybe fucked up quirk science, too, if the flashes of distant memories she’s uncovering in “”””therapy”””” can be trusted (jury’s still out). All that ’n hell in a hand-basket for a personality, too. Makes perfect sense that she can’t love normal. Makes perfect, perfect sense that no rational, reasonable, normal human being would be able to match her, crazy for crazy.

Then, sometimes, Kei looks at her just so, or says somethin’ just so, or does somethin’ just so — and she feels her insides melt. Warm and gooey and soft and molten, like the center of a little lava cake done just right.

Times like this, especially:

my baobao 🐧💛🩵💙
[ received ] yaoyao!! can you come to the lab for a sec? I wanna show you something!

Okay, yeah, it doesn’t take much. She’s a little whipped. So sue her. Anyway — when her baobao calls, his Yaoyao answers. Not like she wasn’t gonna swing by his lab at the end of the day anyway, to pick him up and walk his cute ass home; if anything this just gives her an excuse to see him even sooner. And who’s she to look a Kei-related gift horse in the mouth?

by sixsmith.

light glimmers in a flower, like jewels in a dreeam...
( a million miles away... come back, and stay )

To see Jun at work is always something of a wonder. She’s so smart, and her mind works in such fascinating ways, and she’s observant and quick to act and comes up with such creative ideas. It’s no hardship to let her take the lead at all; to simply listen and nod and trust in Jun’s decisions. To pull back with her precious cargo, to sweep the nomu off the path across the acid lake below, to deliver that poor man to someone who’d see him safely away from the battlefield.

But this newest order — that gives her pause, just a little. The white and the green ones? Lili turns her head, eyeing the two large creatures. She’s not quite nervous, can’t hardly feel it at least, but she doesn’t like the look of those things all the same. She likes the idea of willingly bringing Jun closer to them even less.

But Jun’s orders have so far proven sound, so… and Lili will protect her. Must protect her. If she doesn’t, she has no right to call herself Jun’s friend, human or shadow or otherwise.

Lili takes a breath, even though she doesn’t actually need to breathe in this form, and nods. “Alright. How close will we need to be?” There’s another thing, something needling at the back of her mind. An idea, sparked by something Jun had said. Something about turning the colorful monsters against each other… Ah!

There’s a brief flare of alarm through her bond with Yaoyao at the thought that strikes her— alarm, and then concern, and indignation. Don’t do anything stupid, Lili, Yaoyao warns - by which Lili knows she means anything that involves Lili recklessly and unnecessarily putting herself in harm's way - but Lili is already speaking.

“Jun, I - do you know that old Spanish tradition of bulls and red flags and matadors? It was a cruel tradition, but maybe it could work here? That is to say-“ She takes in another big breath that isn’t truly necessary, but it does help her brace herself. “My form like this, it’s… I can control how tangible I am. What I mean is: if I attract the yellow one’s attention and guide it to aim at one of the other colorful ones, and went intangible before its cube touched me — that is — do you think that would work?”

---

TL:DR;
- Lili does whatever Jun tells her to, but hesitates at the idea of actively bringing her closer to a big threat
- She agrees, reluctantly, anyway
- Lili also suggests essentially using herself as a target to bait the Yellow Nomu into shooting those evisceration cubes at the other colorful big guys

light glimmers in a flower, like jewels in a dreeam...
( a million miles away... come back, and stay )

In her human body, Lili will never be healthy in the way that Yaoyao is healthy. She tires quickly and needs some kind of mobility aid if she plans to go very far. She catches cold every time one of Yaoyao’s coworkers does, even if Yaoyao never catches it herself and washes her hands with more religious devotion than she shows to any actual deity. On bad days, Lili’s limbs still go numb or burn with pain.

But for all the chaos of current circumstances — for all the adrenaline, and the panic, and the danger, and the terror that would surely grip her were she human — somehow, she still finds a moment to feel relief.

What a blessing, to have this form of shadows and lavender, unbound by the earth’s gravity or any of the ailments that plague her frail, useless humanity. What a blessing, to be able to soar overhead of obstacles in her path, or even directly through them, with but a thought. What a blessing, to be useful. What a blessing, to be strong. What a blessing, to be able to make a difference — and to help the people she loves most dearly.

“Jun!”

The first and most important order of business upon Lili’s arrival in the South Wing: to find, and save, Junsuina Kanjo. Lili soars beneath the bridges, and— there! Quickly, but carefully, she hovers at Jun’s side, arms outstretched toward her, cradling and then lifting her. “Yaoyao’s still stationed in the West, but - I’m here. Are you hurt? What do you need? Put me to use, I'll follow your lead.”

this is where the bruises come from
this is where the game gets ugly.

Here’s the thing about loving someone. When you really, really love them - when they make a home in your heart - it means that they leave a hollow space behind when they’re gone. A ruined, vulnerable mess. The perfect place for someone to harm you; to sink their claws in and tear. To love someone that much is to have them be your kryptonite. And as any old comic nerd worth their salt knows (or someone who just happens to be real close friends with such a nerd) kryptonite doesn’t just make you weak. It doesn’t just make you hurt. It’s agony. It hits you like a shock of ice water to the veins, and then it burns like acid going down.

And it just might make you look death in the face and accept it, just so long as it’s at that person’s hands

YAOYAO, NO!

There’s this strange distance to existence, when you’re a shadow and a thought. The world doesn’t disappear, no, she can still see, hear, think, feel. But it’s different. Muted. The colours are less bright, the sounds resonate like an echo in nonexistent ears, the smells are fainter, turning into subtle suggestions; joy, sorrow, frustration, excitement, all dialed down to the lowest possible setting before there’s nothing at all. It’s like living life through a grey veil that dilutes everything beyond it, or watching the world from beneath the surface of a lake. Of course, it’s a price she’s willing to pay for Yaoyao’s happiness - the least she can do, after all they’ve been through - and a fate she’s long since made her peace with, but it’s still not something Lili would wish on anyone if she could help it.

She’s never been so grateful for it, ever, in her life. Because as Yaoyao’s heart cracks open, and her mouth forms around the name of the person Lili knows Yaoyao loves more than life itself—

Lili’s mind is clear. Where there should be shock, and grief, and heartbreak, there is only the vague suggestion of emotions that (were she currently human) might just be enough to split her soul clean in two. Where there are hands wrapped around her other half’s throat, and she knows what Yaoyao is seeing — where Lili herself sees viridian eyes and sunset hair and another dear, beloved face — there is only the chilling knowledge that this cannot be real.

It cannot be true that the body attempting to drag them into the depths belongs to Kei and Jun simultaneously. Distant from the world and her heart, as if watching it from the other side of an screen on the other side of the world, she looks and knows only this: if it can’t be, it most likely isn’t.

Lavender shadows flower out around them in the depths, wisps shaping into hands and prying this person - this impostor — away. Yaoyao has gone numb, and Lili can feel the toll of her rage and the shock, the bruises forming around her neck and the pressure of the water all around them, how it creeps up the spine like a curse. They need to get out of the water. And Lili — Lili shouldn’t have sat back, shouldn’t have waited, shouldn’t have simply clung to the belief that Yaoyao would make sure things worked out no matter how lost in rage and fear she was. Shouldn’t have relied on her, still, to protect them both.

Perhaps… Perhaps Lili has become too comfortable in the passenger seat. Perhaps it’s time she protects Yaoyao back.

They break from the water, haloed by lavender shadows, Yaoyao’s stunned form cradled in one lilac arm and the doppelgänger bound and wrapped up in another, and find chaos.

Five more Jun lookalikes - to Lili at least - and five reasons for Yaoyao to jerk, briefly, just the once, before she shakes her head, coughs up water, and digs her hand into the lavender apparition holding her tight. Here above the water, high in the air, at least they have the distance to look, to see, and be out of reach. Just a moment to breathe. Lili lends Yaoyao her vision, shares what she sees:

A teacher collapsed, a time-turner cradling a ginger body but crying the wrong name, and, overlapping with Yaoyao’s own vision, more Juns (rather than Keis) than should be physically, scientifically, quirklessly possible.

And Yaoyao stills.

The rage is still pounding through her, but it’s - it’s easier now. To think. Funny to think that she hates being submerged so much, but getting dunked against her will actually helped clear her head.

That’s… ‘S not baobao.

No, jie. I don’t think it is. I’m sorry. But - we will find him, okay?

‘S not Juju either.

It can’t be, but… we can check. The radio, remember?

Yeah. Yeah, let’s - let’s radio.

Somewhere in the south, a radio clicks to life.

“Jun? It’s Lili. Are you there? Are you - okay? Please?”

---

TL:DR;
— Yaoyao freezes when ‘Kei’ appears and lunges, and due to her state is in no way equipped to handle the shock or process it, and is successfully plunged into the water
— Lili has a clear head and is distanced from emotion since she’s a shadow rn, so she clocks that something can’t be right and kicks herself into gear — takes over the shadows (which makes them turn wispy lavender) and frees Yaoyao, then hauls both Yaoyao and the doppelgänger out of the water and high into the air for a vantage point/breather
— Lili sees what’s going on down below, namely Lucille being collapsed and Farrin knelt over what he thinks is Sada. Lili then shows Yaoyao, through their connection, how while Yaoyao sees Kei, Lili sees Jun.
— Yaoyao, having been snapped out of it enough to think thanks to the impromptu bath, though still slightly out of it from the shock, also realizes the Keis/Juns/Sadas can’t be real, but isn’t yet in any shape to do anything about it. Give her a sec 🫡
— Lili uses the radio to contact Jun, who’s in the South, to confirm her status.

aren't we all just having such a good time

by sixsmith.

this is where the bruises come from
this is where the game gets ugly.

If you ask Yaoyao in about half an hour, she'll say she deserves an award, probably, for the fact that she didn’t respond by immediately vaulting the counter and grabbing Blondie McBitchhat by the collar of his shirt. But to be fair (or to ask Lili), her actual reaction might… have been... a little worse.

Because what she does do is this: pause for all of a second, look whatsisname up and down like she’s just discovered a lost kid in a liquor shop, and then let out a bark of laughter like that little attempt at a smooth pick-up ‘n take-away is just about the most hilarious thing she’s heard all day.

But for all intents and purposes, let the record state that Yaoyao’s laughter isn’t — at least not completely — on purpose. But come on, now. She’s practically hanging off him like a koala to a tree. They’re basically attached at the hip when they’re not in classes or working. She calls him just about every pet name under the sun, and they’re rarely not holding hands. And for the kicker: today they’re even wearing matching couple’s shirts, her in a purple tee that has ‘HE’S MY SWEET POTATO’ across the chest (granted, she did tie it off at her navel because she got hot working the grill, but still) and him in the corresponding yellow ‘I YAM’.

To have missed all of that? All of it? Call her an asshole or a sadist, sure, but it’s definitely comedy gold.

“Jeez, ah, jeez. Holy shit. Wow. So your eyes work well enough to see baobao as a catch, but not well enough to notice the matching shirts? Wow. Oh, wow.” She could lean on the counter, or one of the shadow arms - but she leans on her baobao instead, using his warm shoulder to keep herself steady as her laughter tapers off into snickers. “Whew… wow. If I didn't know better, I’d almost think I needed that.”

by sixsmith.

this is where the bruises come from
this is where the game gets ugly.

“Are you serious, man? I’m not a kid—“

There’s a loooong silence. Broseph looks from his handfuls to the flyer. Then at the dango in his hands again. Then at the flyer again. Somebody in line clears their throat all pointed-like, the girl right behind Brotis stifles a laugh, and that just about does it for the poor guy’s ego. He puffs up like some bad imitation of one of those inflatable body-builder dolls, color creeping a little up his neck, and scoffs real hard.

“I mean, like, okay, you can’t blame me, dude. You gave ‘em to me all - weird, and that chick probably made ‘em bad or--or somethin’. These look all wrong, nothing like the ones I’m used to, that’s for… … sure…”

The line behind him takes a few shuffling steps back. He looks like he kind of wants to do that to, only he doesn’t know how. And who could blame him?

Yaoyao stands just behind Kei’s shoulder, drawn up to her full height. No more leaning over a grill or a cutting board, no more slouching in boredom. Her head is wreathed in shadows, her face barely visible in the preternatural darkness hanging over her, and her hair floats up and around her; like some kind of demented jellyfish stingers underwater, or a demonic halo, or something equally menacing, and the only thing visible out of the shadows over her face is her eyes: neon, psychedelic, electric purple, pupils drawn into thin, glowing slits. The air is sharp and crisp with the smell of ozone, with the pressure in the air before a storm—

Señor Snapback turns and leaves without another word. By the time Kei turns around - if he turns around - Yaoyao, perfectly normal and human, is boredly eyeing the customer who’d been just behind the pesky prick: a nice, normal girl who’s happy to place her order, take her order, and be on her merry way.

Crisis averted - for now.

by sixsmith.