Hello darkness my old friend...

[omggirlonthenet]

Dark AU Meme



One thing or another went awry, and your character is no longer on the side of the angels. Whether it's through brainwashing, a loss of faith, or just plain wickedness, the draw of the dark has proved much stronger than the call of good.

I N S T R U C T I O N S

1. Post with your character's name and fandom in the subject line! If you already have a dark AU for this character, this would also be a good place to link to any information about it.
2. Look around to find other awesome people who have also posted!
3. Pick a scenario or head over to the RNG to have one picked for you!
4. Tag them!
5. Horrors Profit!


S C E N A R I O S

1. Interrogation - someone from the other side has been captured and brought back, and it's up to you to get them to spill. Maybe you're just the best person for the job, or maybe they're somebody that you used to know. Either way, it all depends on you making them talk.
2. Reconnaissance - you're deep behind enemy lines now, keeping your eyes and ears open for anything useful you might come across. Take care you don't get caught.
3. Double Agent - maybe you're still secretly good but you're in deep with the baddies, or maybe you've never relinquished your inner wickedness but you've convinced the good guys you've changed. Make sure no one finds out your real intentions.
4. Brainwashed - whether through hypnosis or deceit, you've been convinced this is the side for you. But here's someone from your old life - maybe they can talk you out of it?
5. Defection - "I've been a fool!" You've seen the light and you're coming over to the good guys ... but is your contrition genuine?
6. Kidnapped - Either due to a mistake or the cleverness of the other side, you've ended up in their clutches. Just pray they don't have truth serum ...
7. Showdown - It's the final face-off. You against your arch-enemy. Only one of you can walk away from this, and you're determined that it's going to be you.
8. Punishment - you've fucked up. Maybe valuable information was lost or you let someone important get away. No matter what it was, it could mean defeat, and it's time to pay the piper.
9. Victory - You've won! The other side has been completely subjugated and you're planting your flag in their headquarters. Sounds like a chance for a celebration.
10. Defeat - ...or not. Everything went wrong and you've found yourself begging for mercy from the people you tried to kill. Hopefully they'll be more merciful than you would have been ...
11. Pick Your Own - combine, make up your own, have fun!

Due to this being a dark AU meme, there may be triggers, so tread carefully and be respectful so we can all have a good time.

Comments

[showyousomethingnice]

That's one thing Kiyoshi has in common with Mako-chan, Reo thinks - he can say something like that and make it sound like a statement of the future, rather than a prediction. He wants to believe it as easily as Kiyoshi says it, to just quietly let Seirin make the decision for him, but nothing about this is going to be quiet. Or easy. It just barely seems possible now - to leave, to really leave, in a way that Mako-chan will never -

How possible will it seem once he's back in his hotel room, trying to tell Mako-chan that he's done?

(And shouldn't the thought of losing Mako-chan hurt more? Or is that one of those things that doesn't really settle in until after?)

"You're not the only ones who have gotten better since last year," he says. His tone is ambivalent, unable to decide whether it's a warning or an objection.

[tesshin]

"We won't lose."

It's not exactly a mantra, and it's not being said as if it's some attempt to convince himself and Reo of something that is unobtainable; Teppei is not out to instill hope and then watch it stripped away. Seirin is going to play hard for his honour tomorrow and he knows it, but his own pride has never been a big motivator for him. He was never going into the match with Kirisaki Daiichi with the sense he was seeking revenge on his own injury, but with the sense that he doesn't want the others suffering a similar fate. Adding Reo to that just completely seals the matter in his mind: they have to win. It's non-negotiable.

It's not about winning to win, it's about winning to establish safety for the people most important to him--even if he breaks himself to do it, Teppei has already decided he doesn't care as long as Seirin's members, and now Reo too, emerge unharmed in the aftermath.

[showyousomethingnice]

"We watched you play today," Reo says, definitely more of a caution this time. "You don't have any secrets from Mako-chan."

Or so they all think.

He hesitates, then admits,

". . . but I still believe you."

That was why he'd been excited, after all, was because Seirin is leagues above the teams they've faced so far. It isn't them, or Kiyoshi, who are the weakness in this plan.

(Can he tell Mako-chan no? When was the last time he even tried?)

[tesshin]

They all knew this would be an issue at some point and it's the same for all teams eventually. Habits are formed and plays are established, that's just the nature of the game.

He doesn't really feel like he needs to state outright that he's aware and not without concern though because Reo's faith is more than enough in this case.

"All right. I'll make the preparations on our end, you do the same."

Something does come to mind then as he looks down at Reo with a careful stare.

"... I think you should avoid saying anything about this before the match to anyone. If you can, I'd probably even try and avoid it until you have anything lined up and ready to go."

Because Hanamiya is dangerous.

He doesn't need to remind Reo of that.

[showyousomethingnice]

Reo hesitates over that implication, letting go of Kiyoshi and stepping uncertainly back. He knows better, knows far better, than to expect any of this to go smoothly where Mako-chan is concerned, but he doesn't, can't believe -

Mako-chan wouldn't hurt him. Not him.

"- It doesn't matter," he says, uneasy. "If I say anything. He'll know something's wrong the second he looks at me, and we're sharing -"

He stops there, not because it matters if Kiyoshi knows that much - of course they have roommates, the rooms aren't cheap - but because along with everything else he can't ignore anymore . . . a complicated expression, weariness and hurt and anger and resignation, crosses his face.

"No, he might not be there," he corrects himself, then shakes his head. "It doesn't matter, anyway, he'll pick up on it."

[tesshin]

"He probably will," Teppei acknowledges this with a wry smile, shaking his head slowly. "Hanamiya is smart and I don't know anyone with better observational and people-reading skills than him. But if you can deflect even a little for a while then it might work in your favour. He's good, but even Hanamiya isn't a mindreader; he can tell we spoke, that I probably put some ideas in your head, that you're possibly having second thoughts or doubts about the team... But I don't think he'd imagine we'd ask you to come to us."

He gives a low chuckle, his shoulders sagging.

"... Ironically, I think the poor attitude Hyuuga has had toward you will throw Hanamiya off. He'd never imagine Hyuuga to agree to it, I'm sure."

[showyousomethingnice]

On the same team as Hyuuga. That's - something to think about later. After the game tomorrow. There's already too much to think about and he can't afford to dwell on anything that might throw him off course. He doubts his ability to pull this off enough as it is, and dealing with Mako-chan will be - anything he can use as an excuse to put off acting or to change his mind entirely is best avoided.

"Of course, you're right," he says, wiping the tears still on his face away with the back of his hand. "It wouldn't even occur to him that" - he can't help but grimace slightly - "I'd swap him for Hyuuga, either. As a captain."

He's glad now that he never told Mako-chan about his parents' concerns. That would have planted a seed that might have been all he'd need.

He closes his eyes for a second, thinking, wanting to get off the subject before it settles and drags his focus toward it.

"What about your coach?" It's odd to think of having a coach who isn't also the captain, even if that was the only set-up he'd known before last year. Mako-chan makes the combination of the roles seem so natural that it feels to Reo now like he's never played any other way.

[tesshin]

Teppei doesn't pull too far away as Reo makes the gesture to wipe his eyes, just watching him calmly and quietly as he speaks while a small smile emerges on his face. It's actually fine how little Reo think of Hyuuga because Teppei would never want another captain. It's not just that they're friend either (and that it took some time for them to get there) but that Teppei trusts Hyuuga greatly when it really matters. Times like this, this is when Hyuuga will really come through for them and the fact that Reo has no reason to believe that, and by extension Hanamiya, actually works so strongly in their favour.

He does sort of wince a bit and chuckle sheepishly as Reo expressing his sense that Hanamiya could never believe he'd be swapped out as Reo's captain and replaced by Hyuuga Junpei, but ultimately Teppei knows what he means by that; Hanamiya's pride and hold over Reo wouldn't allow him to think a change like that could be possible.

Lifting a hand then, Teppei very gently wipes a stray tearline from Reo's cheek that his own hand missed, though the touch doesn't linger.

"Riko? Ah... She'll be fine, I'm sure. Riko likes strong players with a lot of potential. I'm sure she'll come up with something special for you in terms of training and integration. I'm really not worried at all."

[showyousomethingnice]

Mako-chan would never believe that Reo, having escaped a series of captains who treated him with distant contempt at best, would choose to have another captain of the same breed. Reo doesn't quite believe it himself, but - desperate times. Not to mention the surreality of this turn in the conversation, with the impossible becoming reality so suddenly. It provides a cushion, makes it easier to consider the situation with a paradoxically dreamlike pragmatism. There is, after all, no doubting the fact that Hyuuga, coming as he does as part of the package including Seirin (and Kiyoshi), is the far lesser of two evils.

"That's good," he says. "I'll need a lot of . . ." He trails off for a moment, thinking of how quickly Mako-chan's teachings became second nature, and how close he came just minutes ago to crippling Kiyoshi when they're not even on the court. It won't be easy, unlearning all of that.

"A lot of work," he finishes helplessly.

[tesshin]

"That's our specialty."

Seirin hasn't always been a great team, or even one that needed glancing at twice before. It doesn't have list of past great players or even a history to speak of as such a newly built school, but the basketball team has scraped up from literally nothing but ego-weathered players from middle school who still had the hunger to play. They'd been lucky in their second year with Kagami and Kuroko joining, but neither came as finely polished players, they'd needed training, guidance and work to make them effective.

"You'll fit in at Seirin, no matter what you might think right now, I'm sure of it."

He holds out his hand to Reo then, smiling warmly.

"Tomorrow we'll win, no matter what you do, no matter what Kirisaki Daiichi does, we'll win. Don't think I don't mean this or that I'll forget, Reo."

[showyousomethingnice]

It says a great deal about the way the night has progressed that Reo takes Kiyoshi's hand without hesitation.

"I know you won't," he says. That will be what holds him to this once he's back in his room, and when he sees Mako-chan again, and when they're all in the locker room tomorrow - that he knows Kiyoshi won't forget. The thought of all of that should make him want to stay just a little longer, to put it off as long as he can, but suddenly the idea of stretching the anticipation out even a second longer makes him more anxious than just getting it started ever could.

He grabs hold of that feeling while it's there, uses it as a catalyst to make himself say,

"Goodnight, Kiyoshi."

He should say thank you too, but there will be time for that later. He lets go of the other boy's hand and turns away to head back to the hotel without waiting for an answer.

(Mako-chan isn't there when he gets back; an hour ago that would have been a familiar disappointment, but now it's a sweeping relief. He won't see Mako-chan until breakfast, he's sure of it. There will be no time alone with him before the game, no time to give away the plan Reo and Kiyoshi have cobbled together, and no one to see the way Reo tosses and turns before eventually falling into an unrestful sleep.)

[tesshin]

For now, that's more than enough for Teppei to take up and power him forward into action. He's convinced of the direction things need to go in now and the feeling of Reo's palm against his own is just the final confirmation he needs.

Wide awake and very alert, he watches Reo walk away in silence, trusting him to take everything Teppei has said seriously and carry it with him through the match.

But between now and the time they meet on the court in the daylight hours, Teppei has more work to do by cashing in his one big favour to Hyuuga and convince him that this move on Teppei's part is worth taking seriously..