Just wanted to plant an idea if you wanted a bit of fuel: Mahiru asking Yuno to come to her cell before everything goes down.
Edit: I forgot the ask didn't say it but this is part of Kyanako's incredible Order Of Attack AU!
Didn't mean for this to become a mini Mappi study but here we are ✨ Thank you for the request! I fully intended to write them hanging out, but it's more right before they hang out lol. Went a bit on-the-nose with foreshadowing, but isn't that the fun part? It has become Emotional Over Mahiru Hour...
I kept things vague, but TW for mentioning her boyfriend's state of potential self-harm
Mahiru tried not to act superstitious, she really did. As much as she loved the idea of little luck charms, or avoided easy signs of misfortune, it was easier to keep quiet about such ridiculous things.
Maybe catching a bride’s bouquet meant no guarantees; maybe there was no real harm in stepping underneath ladders, maybe a coin tossed into a fountain had no real magic to its wish. However, the one thing she knew for sure held power was a lucky presence. Being in the right place at the right time could alter everything. And today was the right time for something. There was this waiting in the air. The prison had been holding its breath. Mahiru knew it was time to release it all.
“You must be so lonely, why don’t you let big sis Mahiru keep you company?” She beamed at Amane.
She often recalled the good fortune that she and a certain young man had crossed paths on the university terrace. She used to laugh with him about the wonderful coincidence of bumping into each other outside of the bakery, then the convenience store.
Though she’d never spoken about it to him, she was also grateful for many occasions where she walked in on him at the precise moment to talk him out of something reckless. She always told him that they’d do everything together. He didn’t need to be alone anymore.
“I wish to be alone. I need peace of mind to think.” Amane turned away from the cell door.
It was a good thing, too. Mahiru’s smile wasn’t as convincing as she said, “o-oh. Of course.”
She made her way around the panopticon, hearing Fuuta pace his cell in anticipation. He must have felt it too, this holding of breath.
Or perhaps not. He turned down her offer for a bit of company, including a few more colorful words than Amane had. Mahiru just apologized for bothering him and headed back to her cell. She wasn’t sure where Mikoto was at this hour, but she didn’t feel like smiling through a third rejection.
She shook her head back and forth. She wished the motion could rattle the voices inside, she wished she could shake them all away. With her arms secured in place she could no longer cover her ears. She used to hum to keep them at bay, but lately they’d been too loud to stifle. They just kept on talking.
Their words told her the two were right. Nobody needed her company. No – nobody wanted it. Being together hadn’t helped her boyfriend. In fact, being together had been the very thing that got him killed. No wonder Amane and Fuuta wanted to avoid her.
So then, this was for the best. She would rather deal with the brief sting of refusal than stumble in one day to find them hurt… or worse. As much as she tried to avoid the superstition of it all, the voices reminded her that her very presence could mean life or death.
“Mappi, are you alright?” Mahiru hadn’t realized a tear had slipped down her cheek until she hurried to swipe it away in front of Yuno.
“Hah, I’m fine! Just fine.” It was impossible to fool her, Mahiru had learned, but that never stopped her from trying.
At least she always spoke tactfully. “Rough morning?”
Mahiru shifted her arms in her uniform, making a small sound of agreement.
“Can I do anything to help? What if I stay with you for a bit? I can do your hair, and…”
The voices were right. Amane and Fuuta knew it, too. Presences did hold power, and Mahiru’s was cursed.
But she would sound foolish admitting such a fear to Yuno. She'd heard plenty from the voices about how stupid and airheaded she was, there was no use in getting the same lecture from someone as grounded as her.
Mahiru managed a weak protest, unable to explain her real reasoning. Yuno was insistent. She didn’t give much of a choice. Could she feel the strangeness of the prison, as well?
At last, Mahiru allowed her shoulders to sag. Yuno was lucky. And kind. Having her nearby would do her good. Amane and Fuuta would be alright. Mahiru had tried spending more time with them after verdicts were announced. Now, she made a mental note to pull back. If her love couldn’t save anyone, at least she could spare them from her curse. They would be safe.
“Yes. Please stay. The truth is... I don't want to be alone.”
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how's your writing process?
I think I've got a pretty good system down--at least for me.
Step 1 is the rough draft. And I mean the roughest rough draft to ever draft. Lot's a run-on sentences. Nonsense descriptions. Awkward dialogue. Really just getting the bare bones of writing on the page. The type of writing I wouldn't let anyone see lest they judge my writing capabilities.
Step 2 is something that every writer dreads hearing, and when I first heard of it my knee-jerk reaction would be to self-destruct instead of doing it, but it actually really works. That would be rewriting the entire thing from top-to-bottom. Full on blank page, retyping the whole thing word for word, but at a slower, more detailed pace.
I initially though it would be like pulling teeth, but actually, it helps me slow down and flesh out the world, scenes, and dialogue way more. It's easier to catch it if something isn't flowing right.
Sometimes, if I feel like the draft really needs it, I'll rewrite the entire thing 2-3 more times.
Step 3 is transferring the entire thing to Google Docs (I write on Scrivener), changing the font, tidying up the format, and going over it again in a new, fresh layout. Sometimes, I'll also edit it on my phone to give my brain a different perspective of it.
Step 4 is putting it into a editing software, like Grammarly or ProWritingAid (<- I prefer this one, personally). It has a lot of cool settings. The ones I typically put my stuff through go is grammar, flow, style, and echos.
Step 5 is then listening to the chapter in a text-to-speech app, which makes it way easier to any spot clunky sentences, weird dialogue, grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes etc.. that I might've missed in my previous run-throughs.
Sometimes--this is more like a side-step--I'll then have a beta go over it, because as any writer knows, the more you look at your own writing, the easier it is to not see mistakes T.T After the beta goes over it, I'll listen to it one more time, just to be safe, and then:
Step 6: Prosper. Post that shit on AO3 and obsessively check my email for immediate validation >.<
Writing it all out, the whole thing seems a bit complicated, but it works for me, so it's the general process I follow when writing stuff ^.^
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