deercountry | Some nights, I stay up cashing in my bad luck

[Through that logic, how could Min have almost been pulled into one at all?

He swishes his legs a little bit, not really enjoying the concept of aimless floating.

I wish we were standing back on the ground.

Gravity manifests all at once and they fall a good six inches. Min-Gi gives a startled noise but manages to land on his feet. Their shopping falls to the ground with a thwump. ]

That- okay that was weird.

[Ryan didn't even have the slightest idea that was coming, so he doesn't land on his feet at all. He slips as gravity returns, and falls right on his butt on the...floor? There's a floor now???

He pushes himself up on his palms quickly.]

Wh-What just happened?! Min?

[The ground doesn't feel like much in particular under his hands, and it's not very reassuring at all. Where are they?]

I said I don't know!

[But he kind of does. Weirdly. Maybe just by instinct? It doesn't matter.
Clawed or not, he leans down and offers Ryan a hand up.]

Just now I wished we were standing and now we are?

[This has to be the train. It has to be. What else could do this? Who else? His heart is still thundering in his chest, fear and anxiety in his throat.]

[Ryan takes that hand without hesitation. He's still Min, even with claws.

All of it starts to click together. The lights at the wedding performance. The fact that Min was nearly sucked into a wormhole before. Gravity seemingly responding to Min's wishes, for some reason. He wanted to be standing and then he was.

He just...boggles at Min for a second.]

...Dude. Are you doing this?

[It's not really a question. Ryan's pretty sure he's right about this one, but he wants to hear Min's take anyway.]

[The lights, the prom in their kitchen, the violet gleam in his eyes.

None of which Min-Gi has really seen, and if he has he hasn't acknowledged it. None of that stuff was him, if anything it was Ryan's powers.

He scoffs and waves it off.]

Pfff- No way. How could I? I can't do anything.

[His powers are borked. He's a dud. One more thing he isn't any good at. Another let down. Another lack of progress. The only thing he's good at is getting hurt or fucking up enough to turn into a squid.]

I've tried, remember?

[Ryan shakes his head.]

That doesn't mean anything. Half the time my powers happen by accident, or against my will and it was even worse when I first got here. Most of it isn't stuff I've tried to do, and the stuff that is? Totally doesn't work if I'm trying too hard.

[He gestures around them widely at the kaleidoscope world they're in (now with actual gravity) and then back to Min.]

Darkbloods can manipulate reality and reality is pretty freaking manipulated right now, don't you think?!

[MIN, COME ON.]

I mean...

[He looks around. It's kind of hard to refute when you're standing in the middle of it. This is definitely warped reality.]

Maybe? But it's been months and I read that your powers are supposed to manifest right away and be uncontrollable. Am I really that far behind?

Edited 2022-04-18 06:54 (UTC)

I...don't think you are, actually? I think those mystery lights from Wu and Mako's wedding were you too. They were these colors, right? And we never did figure out the rig for it...

[And it wasn't for lack of trying. None of the light set ups at the Raccoon Room had the ability to make a laser show swirl around them, and they haven't reproduced it in exactly the same way ever since.]

I just got pictures from the wedding photographer a couple days ago, actually? Sorry, I keep meaning to bring them over and forgetting them at Shiro's. [Of course he did.] But listen, you can actually see the lights in the pictures! Whatever those lights were, they showed up on camera really clearly.

[Ryan pauses, and then he laughs a little.]

This would be way more compelling if I actually had the pictures with me.

Edited 2022-04-18 07:11 (UTC)

I wish I could see them.

[He pauses for a second, having just heard the words come out of his mouth. Min-Gi looks around like he's half expecting them to just...materialize. Maybe they do, maybe right in Ryan's pocket, who knows.]

But, hold on. I thought those lights were you. Palebloods can make people hallucinate, I thought you were just totally ruling the space.

[Was it really him? Shouldn't he have, you know, felt something? Different? Do you actively feel your abilities happening? Is this...hope in his voice?]

You really think this is me?

Edited 2022-04-18 15:39 (UTC)

Luckily, I've recently become a hallucination expert!

[What a fun new way to say he suffered from hallucinations all last month!]

Think about it man. If it was a hallucination, even if everyone in the room saw it, no one could have gotten a picture of it. You can't make a camera hallucinate.

[It sounds like the kind of argument someone would make to prove ghosts are real, but Ryan is getting progressively more excited about this realization. Because it means--]

--you were totally ruling the space!

[At that moment, Min will feel something in his pants pocket that wasn't there before - an envelope, with at least three different notes stuck to it.

THE PICTURES
BRING TO MIN-GI'S
DON'T FORGET THIS TIME щ(゜ロ゜щ)]

[He isn't so sure about hallucination expert, but then again, yeah, he guesses Ryan kind of is. It makes sense, he has been dealing with them a lot and they're a part of his power set anyway. The logic tracks, you wouldn't be able to photograph a hallucination.

Man, Ryan is really smart. Was he always this smart? Min should give him more credit.

Maybe he does have powers. Maybe he does and they're standing right in the middle of them.

A weight drops in Min-Gi's pocket and he feels it. Not startled exactly, but suddenly aware. No way, no way, no way.

Carefully, because his fingers are trash weapons now apparently, he reaches in and pulls the envelope out of his pocket. (Incidentally, one of the reasons he likes these pleated slacks so much is how deep the pockets are.) This is-

Seriously?]

Is this them?

[Like they obviously are, but what what what????]

[It's definitely them. Ryan wrote those notes hoping it would make the envelope stand out more, and he'd remember to grab it before he left the house.]

Yeah! Yeah, I wanted to bring them today, but...uh. I kinda...forgot?

[He shrugs helplessly. Oops? The thought was there.]

Open it! If it's really them, they'll be in there.

[Quickly he moves to Min's side, wanting to see for himself if this darkblood magic trick really worked.]

[Yer a wizard, Min-Gi.

He opens the envelope with wonder and pulls out the stack of photographs from Wu and Mako's wedding, flipping through a few of them.

They're really good. They look like rock stars. Real rock stars.

And sure enough, around them in several of the pictures are glittering lights that match the landscape they're in right now. Which is amazing but he's still processing the fact he summoned photographs from Ryan's room. His hands are a little shaky, photos loose in them lest he damage the precious things.]

I can't believe this.

[They really do. Ryan's only had the pictures for a couple of days, but he's spent a lot of time marveling over them himself - not just for the mystery of the lights, but because they just...they look really good. They look professional, like they've really made it. He remembers how that night felt, and it's amazing to know that's exactly what other people saw too.]

I can.

[He puts a hand on Min's shoulder, and leans in to give him a quick little peck on the cheek.]

I told you you weren't a dud.

[The sentiment is more soft than smug. An "I told you so" that's more about how proud he is of Min than just being right.]

[Min blushes a little by virtue of how sweet the kiss is. A laugh burbles up and he closes his eyes as he lets it out, relief pulling away some of the longest resting anxieties. He isn't useless. He isn't broken.

I'm not a dud.

God, that feels so amazing.]

I have powers!

[Min holds the photos tighter and leans into Ryan before stepping back a little and gesturing around them.]

I'm doing this! I don't know how, but I am! Ryan, I was so scared we were dead meat. And now we're...somewhere...and that thing isn't!

[His good feelings are infectious (literally, for Ryan, but that isn't really a bad thing) and Ryan grins right along with him.]

You do! And you did! I dunno where this is either, but you totally saved our asses back there!

[It hits him that his own powers probably wouldn't have helped at all. Everyone in the near vicinity would have just known how freaked out he was at the time. But! He's very happy for Min!]

...Hm. I wonder what other stuff you can do?

[There's a light, playful lilt to it. They're in an empty void where there probably won't be consequences or whatever, so...where's the harm in taking a second to find out?]

[How amazing is that, a safe space where no one can judge him while he tries to work through this stuff, free of opinions or accidents that could get someone hurt.

Kind of exactly what he needs. Imagine that. A helpful power.

If he could just figure out how to do this on command. Sure would take the pressure off needing to learn how to fight, like, yesterday.

Min puts the photos back in their envelope and stows them in his pocket before setting his hands on his hips and taking a slow breath.]

I don't know where to start. Every single time I've sat down and willed something to happen, nothing does. I wish I came with an instruction book.

[That's what he really wants. But, tragically, nothing manifests this time.]

[He might be a little too new at this to manifest a whole instruction book that doesn't exist.]

Relax, man. None of us came with instructions. Besides, who reads those anyway?

[Min-Gi. Min-Gi does. But Ryan breezes by that point easily.]

You just have to try stuff. Throw spaghetti at the wall, see if it sticks. And like, you definitely know some stuff now that you've done?

[Ryan shrugs. He's trying to help, but he's also never been a darkblood.]

I mean, before you were just blindly guessing but now you've made some stuff happen. ...It's a place to start?

Hm.

[Min-Gi pushes up his sleeves (because that helps focus, obviously, the same way poking the tip of his tongue out does) and looks at his hands.]

Okay. So... I've made a wormhole when I was scared or embarrassed.. the lights when we were playing.. do you think that prom thing was me or you?

[All the while willing little dazzling neon wiggles to materialize... somehow? Please? C'mon powers, don't make him look stupid, now.]

[Ryan can't help watching Min push his sleeves up - it's really, really cute. Somewhere along the way while Ryan wasn't paying enough attention, Min got very nice arms.

Focus!!!]

I...think prom might've been you, actually? It would make more sense if it was you. This is gonna sound super weird, but I think it was you because I could see it too?

[He looks and sounds like he hasn't thought about it at all before this exact second, which is probably mostly true. He paces around a little, feeling like he needs to move around while he thinks this out.]

Like, I've made people hallucinate before, but every time it happens I can't actually see what they're seeing. ...Or hear what they're hearing, I guess. It mostly happens when I'm playing music so like, probably hearing. But that makes sense, right? I'm making them see something that isn't actually there so I can't see it because it's not real.

[He pivots, and points at Min.]

But you can make stuff real! So you put prom in the kitchen!

[It's a very good bit of detective work. Mako would probably be proud.

Min nods along, still focusing on his hands. He's got nothin', but what Ryan is saying tracks completely.]

I was thinking about Prom.

[They'd been talking about it, hadn't they? He isn't sure, actually, it all kind of blends together and his memory is a little bleedy this month on the reality/fantasy line.]

About how we were robbed and how much we could have done if we'd grown up here. I mean, I would have asked you out in middle school. And we could have saved so many bad feelings if it was safe to be honest.

[They had been talking about Prom. Ryan remembers it well. He fessed up about how his girlfriend at the time had been a total fake, and about how nice it would have been to grow up in Trench where they wouldn't have had to worry about that at all.]

Dude, I could have been kissing you since middle school?

[It's a nice thought. A world where they could have been open about who they are from the start.

Ryan thinks for a moment, and then moves to close the gap between them. He holds out his hands, without thinking at all about Min's claws.]

How about an encore? You already did it once without even trying. And we could probably fit a whole prom in here, right?

[He glances around, but he still can't really tell where this void begins and ends.]

I mean. I don't see why not. I kind of think the space could be...as big or small as I need?

[So says intuition, and according to Min-Gi, he is usually right.

Ryan offers his hands and Min gives them, wincing at the state of himself. This space is better lit than the street and shame rises up to sit on his shoulders. Ryan was right, before. The only one falling apart around here is Min.

He chickens out and draws his hands back, mood dropping through the floor. They're disgusting, blackened and sharp with spidering cracks around his wrists that work up his arms. Behind him the landscape changes, slowing and darkening but also getting...foggier? Suddenly, Min-Gi doesn't want to make prom. He just wants to go back to normal or hide. But he can't because he's corrupting, right? That's what this is? Just like Lance and Mako told him about.]

Maybe another time..

[He pulls his sleeves back down, curls his hands, and stuffs them into his jacket pockets.]

I don't really feel like it, anymore.

[And just like that, Ryan is left hanging, hands outstretched as Min pulls away.]

...Huh? Min?

[But Min's withdrawing, and the world around them is getting darker. A fog is rolling in, and it's getting legitimately harder to see. Ryan's hands go up, likke he's placating him.]

W-We don't have to do Prom! It was just an idea. We can do whatever you want! Or-- we don't have to do anything.

[Maybe he was pushing too hard? But it's more than that. It has to be more than that. This little cosmic coin purse adventure hasn't made all of their problems go away.]

Min, just talk to me!

[A beat. He won't look Ryan in the eye.]

What's there to say? I'm obviously not doing this right. Or not doing something right. Even now I'm corrupting more and more.

[Why does that hurt so much to say? Emotion prickles up. This should be the same as talking about having a cold or breaking your leg, right? It's a treatable illness. But saying it out loud, identifying and admitting that's what's happening even though it's obvious... it tastes like poison on his tongue.]

I don't even know what's wrong with me. We just figured out my powers! I should be better!

[A hard breath. There are phantoms in this fog. Every whisper of self doubt and anxiety that have been stacking in Min-Gi's throat since he washed up.]

I don't- I don't think I'm cut out to do this, Ryan. I'm not strong enough. There's no end goal, here, this is just what life is now. I don't know how to handle that.

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