Tamaki § 013 § SAFE POINT: CAFE

[spectaculaire]

Who: Tamaki, Haruhi, AND EVERYONE ELSE
Where: Café de Rêves
Style: Either
Status: OPEN

Comments

[ofgratitude]

The Café was just visible in the darkness, small and solid but most importantly stable, and Allelujah loped towards it without hesitation because the ground had been moving and whatever was inside couldn't be worse than that. Storms blew over the island sometimes, though never ones like this, and in any case it was more common to watch their passage from far overhead, tracing curled cloud patterns over the Earth's surface and wondering what the people below it saw.

Stepping through the doors was immediate relief, and he threaded fingers through the sopping mess that was his hair, pushing it back to glance about the area. Tumbled furniture suggested the Café hadn't escaped unscathed, but it was still preferable to no shelter at all, and he cautiously sidled in further.

[mindhax]

Mao entered the café not long after, not even bothering to try to dry himself off in the slightest. He'd already moved from one safe point to another, so who was to say he wouldn't do it again for one reason or another? He fiddled absently with the volume dial for his headphones. If all this water caused them to short out...

But then something caught his attention in the mind of the man a ways in front of him and completely distracted Mao. Suddenly, the rain and the noise didn't matter so much. Careful to avoid the upturned furniture, he came up behind Allelujah and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Hey," he began casually, "can I ask you a question?"

[ofgratitude]

Standing some way in so as not to impede new arrivals, Allelujah flicked his gaze around the Café and its occupants with quiet but increasing anxiety. Every so often he glanced down at the Dreamberry instead, yet the absence of anything but static would inevitably send him back to his restless examinations. It was impossible not to remember the last time the devices had been like this, the last time Somarium had...changed. There was that same feeling of foreboding, and no assurances that the others were alright. It was not as though separation was unfamiliar to any of them, but it hadn't ever ended in anything good-

The tap made him start, worried thoughts dissipating as he turned. He blinked at the stranger - and hope had barely had time to raise its head - before realising there were no doubt others in a similar position, seeking news. "Certainly."

[mindhax]

Now that he was concentrating a bit more, Mao could glean from his mind that this "Allelujah" character had been through a lot, to say the least. The kind of guy that had a lot on his mind. Someone that would be easy to toy with. Might as well jump straight to the point.

"Who's Hallelujah?" he asked, his sunglasses slipping down his nose a ways to reveal his eyes. It was a rhetorical question, of course; he already knew the answer. He just wanted to see how Allelujah would react.

[ofgratitude]

"I'm sorry?" Allelujah drew back slightly, head tilted as though trying to better catch the sentence. He had to have heard it wrong. The rain outside, the voices within, the clattering of shifted furniture - he had to have heard it wrong.

[mindhax]

"You heard me correctly," Mao said, but he obliged anyway. Speaking slowly and clearly, enunciating carefully, and raising his voice just a bit, he repeated, "Who. Is. Hallelujah?"

[ofgratitude]

"I don't know what you mean." It was flat, automatic, a preprogrammed response because everything inside was caught up in the tangle of impossible. Nobody knew, everyone who knew was dead or gone and it was impossible.

[mindhax]

"You really shouldn't tell lies like that," Mao said condescendingly. He could tell that Allelujah's thoughts were already starting to race, but that was to be expected. "You know exactly what I mean...because he's part of you. Am I wrong?"

[ofgratitude]

"H-How do..." Allelujah took a step back, calm front beginning to waver under the sheer weight of truth. "You...you can't know that..."

[mindhax]

"But I do." For every step Allelujah took back, Mao took a step forward. He (intentionally) completely neglected to explain how he knew any of this. It was hardly going to make a difference in a few minutes, anyway. "Did you think you could hide it forever? Just because you thought everyone who could possibly know was dead or gone? How naive."

[ofgratitude]

Allelujah flinched backwards, only to strike the edge of a table - the Café was only so large. Trapped. Some strangled, wordless noise forced its way out, the lights suddenly harsh and the rain suddenly a roar and he tore his gaze away from the threat ahead, squeezing his eyes shut and pressing his hands over his ears because they knew too much and there was only one way and he'd never known how to make it stop, only Hallelujah had-

"Get out." It was ragged, more plea than command. "G-Get out!"

[ooc: "How naive." Y-You quoted Hallelujah. If that wasn't on purpose, B-BEST COINCIDENCE. EVER.]

[mindhax]

Mao dismissed Allelujah's plea and took one more step forward, closing the distance between the two of them. How quickly things had gone downhill for him...and it was probably only going to get worse from there. He started clapping his hands; a random, meaningless action, making noise for the sake of making noise.

"And he's not just any old part of you, is he? He's violent--dangerous! Unfitting of a person like you, some might say."

(ooc: lol must be the best coincidence ever! I've never even watched Gundam 00. FFFFFF)

[ofgratitude]

It had been a fear worse than the presence of pain, a fear that they would find someone to delve in deep, pluck free the knowledge that would mean the death of Celestial Being, of everyone- but how could they? He had killed them all, he had killed them; he had killed his own kind. There was only Marie and this was not her, and yet they were speaking things that he had never said, never in their presence, and how else could they know?

And then Allelujah stiffened at the next words, eyes snapping open again. "You..." For the first time, there was the faintest thread of something hard in the choked tone. "You don't know anything."

[ooc: Halle and Mao really do seem disturbingly similar :| Only the former isn't exactly keen on, yanno, giving Allelujah a breakdown. ...mostly.]

[mindhax]

"Quite the contrary! I know plenty." It was only half a bluff; Allelujah's mind seemed to have quite a bit of his memory missing from when he was younger, but what was left was more than enough. He wasn't at all intimidated by the hardened tone in his voice as he continued.

"You remembered everything he did those few times he took over. Those times he killed all those comrades of yours...that's who they were, weren't they?"

1/2

[ofgratitude]

The table at Allelujah's back skidded slightly on the wet floor, suddenly bracing most of the Meister's weight. He couldn't breathe. That was a knowledge even empty air was not privy too, a tragedy unshared. To hear it spoken aloud in mocking tones so close and yet not similar at all...

2/2

[ofgratitude]

He curled in on himself, a futile defense against something not physical; a spring wound so tight it was impossible to tell if it would bounce - or snap.