the one where makima pops bocchi the rock

[overlies]

Who: makima & co! that could be you!
What: a few closed prompts for housemates and random open prompts for any wanted run-ins! also open to plotting and wildcards!
When: post mob's explosion, throughout the rest of march + april
Where: the dog house (you can't tell me that's not what house makima is called), the entertainment feed, other locations to be determined!

Content Warnings: psychological & emotional manipulation, devil contracts, gaslighting, victim blaming, body swapping, zombie dogs, violence, more tba if/as they come.

Comments

[good_mourning]

[Everything was decidedly not alright. On some level Sunny understood that Mob couldn't always control his powers. There was plenty of evidence of that everywhere. He hadn't realized what that would feel like, though.

It made Mob's repression of his emotions make more sense.

There's not a lot that Sunny can do, as the anger inside of him is given form. He wants to calm down, but he can't at this point, because that emotional pull within him doesn't want to. This was the only time so far that he'd been actively working against that, and it wasn't going well.

Anything loose in the kitchen and near its entrance way starts to shudder. Plates, pans, ornamentation, all of it starts to shake where it stood. Anything close enough to a table's edge will shake itself straight to the ground. He tries to take a step back, as the power that inhabited this body forces its way out. It doesn't hurt exactly, but it's so much. Overwhelming.

If he could just leave. Get far enough away it would be fine. He could calm down.]

[overlies]

[ well, that’s a bother.

makima turns then, at last to see the rest of the kitchen clattering. some of the plates she had prepared on the table are falling, fracturing, breaking— anything else is pushed onto the walls by unseen forces in a blink. makima turns in full with her hands behind her back, but the kitchen is warping. the dimensions don’t look right. they’re not supposed to be, when she twists the very plain with darkblood until clattering and shaking just felt like whispers from within a tunnel.

calmly, she walks to him as if she were strolling through a park. to her boy, to her vessel and power that trembles to the point that he can’t hold it in without her, as expected. but that is all beneath her.

she keeps sunny from stepping back, her piercing eyes within him and burning through as she reaches in, invisibly, crouches before him and says two simple words while stroking the farther side of his bangs behind his ears. ]

Stop.

[ and just like that, the whirling winds inside are thrown into a cell. locked. chained. kept quiet. everything halts by her command, emotion from him may cease to exist for one second, two, three— until his power is reigned by her chains. she holds them tight, and in another split fall he is free to feel, without the cosmic force attached to it.

that is mob’s contract. everything (almost everything) that functions within him and makes him whole abides to her word. he is, as sunny once said, owned. he has a plated collar and a diamond beaded leash. a good home, a warm bed, playmates and excellent food served on a platter. what more could he want?

it was either that or lose control. ]

[good_mourning]

[Sunny observes the work of the darkblood powers. During his time here he hadn't seen their effects much at all. In a different situation he would have been more curious, but in truth he was more focused on Makima herself than any darkblood ability. He wants to move, but he can't.

Even before she looks at him with those intense eyes of hers, he can't move. He certainly can't after.

There's nothing to do but wait and-

For a long few seconds after she speaks, Sunny feels cold. Not physically, but within himself, like there was something missing. It doesn't last long, but it is a terrifying emptiness he won't forget soon. The objects in and around the room stop their clattering. The sudden absence of sound rings in his ears.

And there is still anger there, but for the moment it is being usurped by another emotion- fear. Sunny is terrified. Did Mob even recognize what he had truly agreed to? What sort of power Makima truly held over him?

He swallows and manages to take a few deep breaths. Calm Down. And that doesn't work as well as he'd hoped, but at least he feels as though he can move, even if he feels almost dizzy with the recognition of what had happened.]

I- [What was there to say?] I'm- [Not sorry, surely. Even if he broke some things in the house accidentally that was better than this. He... didn't know. He truly doesn't know what to do, or even if he could just leave.]

[overlies]

[ quiet. peaceful. perfect. chaos is smothered under the weight of her demonic pressure, and that very burst of fear is what makes her control stronger. it makes makima, the entity, stronger. makima knows more than anyone why she is up to par with primal fears— because conquest is feared since man began to bicker. it doesn’t mean she likes it. she wants the opposite of what fear generates.

and that doesn’t mean she can’t have it.

she keeps her knees crouched and her height to “mob”, fixing his hair, the collar of his clothes, and giving his cheeks a soothing pamper. she looks upon him with frightful golden eyes that cast an almost hypnotic stare with the amount of unnatural swirls within them— she doesn’t know how to love. she doesn’t know how true affection would work. but she desperately wants to know and execute.

it is why that, right here, she treats him like a pet. she treats him like she would see mothers treat their children in movies, with this odd little tick to them— as if an alien were simply reproducing to attain the desired result. like someone only she has condition to care for him, and love him. because he will love her back, and that would be that. ]

There, [ her smile is sweet, her voice is sweet, but the circumstance is far from. ] all better now.

[ he could do what he wants, and there would be no ability to accompany his emotions. ]

[good_mourning]

[In the midst of this, Sunny feels something reach out to him. It isn't from deeper within, this was external. There was something there earlier that was easy to ignore underneath his own emotions, but now it was unmistakable. Concern, worry, panic.

His eyes go up, searching as though the secret was somewhere in this room. It wasn't from Makima, he knew that. This was different.

The bond that Mob and Robby share doesn't even occur to him. Though it might, given time.

But he's pulled away from those feelings by his own unease. Makima crouched and watching him closely- fixing little things about him to be neat and tidy. He doesn't understand. He doesn't know what she wants. Not right now and not from Mob in general.

She's being so soft, like she cares, like she actually wants to make things all better just as she says.

There's a long instant where Sunny says nothing, hesitant to speak when he could leave- should leave, while he still could. But he wants to know something-]

Miss Makima... what do you feel when you look at me? [He couldn't tell and he wanted- needed- to know. Makima could simply lie to him about it, of course, but perhaps that, too, would be telling.]

[overlies]

[ “nothing” was unfair and inaccurate. she feels pity. and if she doesn’t feel that, she almost felt a little more than pet-directed affection, but— who was to say it was anything more than favoritism? shigeo, above else, was human, and humans would always have an innate fear toward her no matter what. was he a different case, welcoming control rather than fearing it?

maybe that’s why she’s getting a bit attached. but she does have plans for his abilities. they will serve a greater purpose than the one he knows today.

control was the next best thing. she knew what was best for them, and there’s nothing better than filling in that role. but why is mob asking? makima’s lips fix and twist oddly as the accommodate a smile she places, as if masking a bite of her lip at something quite cute. did he need validation? plenty of teens did, as they grew. did she love him? was he being a good boy?

so, it’s without further ado that she throws him a bone. her hand goes to his head, throw his hair, and smooths it down gently.

the room is still off, twisted. only now does the dimensioning of tables and floors seem to straighten out, and the space of the kitchen returning to normalcy. the sound from it is still dulled— as if they were stuffed into a padded room with muffling headphones. ]

Peace.

[ it was a strange answer. it was twisted in meaning, but it wasn’t a lie. she did feel at peace. it was as comforting as killing country mice. soothing as a warm cup of tea. controlling his power was one step closer to controlling more than that.

control was peace. and peace for humans is more than enough of what she wants.

(but that is a lie, even if she didn’t see it herself) ]

Do you feel the same way?

[good_mourning]

['Peace' wasn't the answer that Sunny expected. Not at all. He doesn't know what to make of it, of whether that was a lie or not. Maybe it wasn't a lie, but the true meaning of what she was saying with that word was lost on him.

Even so, Sunny feels his chest ache. The way Makima smiles and the way she pats his head and even the way she speaks- it all still makes him like her. He's angry with her, and he's afraid of her and that's why it's so stupid that he doesn't think he can hate Makima.

At least not now, not yet.

Maybe part of it was his own issues, and how Makima was not his sister but so like her in ways. She was affection with him and made him feel cared for. He doesn't want to say 'loved' because that was absurd, particularly after what she'd done to Mob and what she was doing to him right now.

He's sad. And torn. And he truthfully has no idea what to do about Makima, or if he could even do anything.

He does answer.]

You make me feel like I'm at home.

[It was true. It had been true for the past few months he'd lived here and maybe it was still true even now.]

[overlies]

[ makima’s eyes go half shut as she goes from staring to watching down below from her crouched height. she makes him feel like he’s home. home can only be peaceful, safe, and wanted. her hand on top of his head at this point has shepherded him closer to her, but they extend away from him and open in a way that invites him to an embrace. ]

Shigeo.

[ it is time. hug. she want. ]

[good_mourning]

[An invitation for a hug was not what Sunny expected. It makes the entire situation more confusing. He still doesn't know what she truly thinks of Mob, or himself for that matter.

But maybe for just a moment that wasn't important. It would be again, soon, and he would be hurt and angry and saddened all over again. But for now-

Sunny leans forward, wrapping his arms around Makima in a hug.]

[overlies]

[ there's still something missing. it wasn't because it wasn't shigeo, if she had even realized that. there was just something else. no matter how much makima closes her eyes into this awkward embrace and dips her head into a sleek black mass of hair—

it still felt like she was hugging something more complicated than tiramisu or creampuff. her real dogs aren't afraid of her. humans always will be. would she be able to feel something more, perhaps, if this were one day mariana? or would she be another disappointing means to make this world better for her pets?

no matter.

she always brushes it off. she hardly realizes it herself, what it is that she feels, until that scene burns in her mind's eye, of a mother hugging her war-bound son before he leaves her again.

the room's warping has come to a stop. in what felt like a few cloudy blinks, reality has righted itself. some things are still on the floor, broken and a mess, but petting "shigeo's" head and stuffing a void that wouldn't be filled was at the top of her priority. ]

Don't worry about the bowls. I'll clean them up.

[good_mourning]

[Sunny may have been more complicated than Tiramisu or Creampuff, and he may have been afraid of Makima, but perhaps that would someday make their connection more special. Sifting through his conflicting emotions to arrive at the fact that Sunny still cared about her despite everything.

Humans were capable of that. Sunny was capable of that.

But he wasn't quite there yet at the moment, even if he was hugging her and not hating it, in truth. Sunny lifts his head when she speaks.]

Okay. [That was fine, he supposed. Essentially his cue to leave.] Thank you. [Said though he was feeling far from grateful to Makima right now.]