HOME/LAB [maruki family thread tracker]

[takutomaruki]

I AM A SINNER...

╰┈➤ ❝ When we get to the pearly gates. You'll get the green light, I'll get the old door in the face ❞

date

type

link

desc

status

02/01

Toplevel

link

Welcome, dreamer, to the new dream

closed

15/01

Thread

link

Rank 1: Glass, nightmares and Hopes.

closed

27/01

Thread

link

Quick adjustments.

closed

03/02

Post

link

Rank 2: Before my goodwill crumbles away in these sterile lands.

closed

01/05

Top level

link

Rank 3: A gift

active

...YOU ARE A SAINT

Comments

Rank 2: back at home, 19:00

[takutomaruki]

The living room hummed with soft ambient light—the kind that drifted in golden through the gauzy curtains, catching flecks of dust mid-air like a sleepy snowfall. A quiet moment, held like breath.

By the small windowsill, Maruki crouched beside a terracotta pot, his hand steady as he tilted the watering can just so. Water dripped onto the dark soil with a soft glug-glug, the smell of earth rising briefly into the air. The tag on the pot read, in his tidy handwriting:

"Evenings only – overwatering will make her grumpy!"

He smiled faintly at the memory of how fussy this particular plant had been during trial-and-error. The leaves were glossy now, proud. It liked 7PM.

On the kitchen table just behind him, a modest bag rested neatly. Beside it, a sleek cylindrical case wrapped with a red ribbon—half practical, half sentimental. Inside: a brand-new spectacle case. Durable. Lined. Custom-fitted for someone whose current one was cracked near the hinge. Maruki had noticed. Quietly. Of course he had.

He didn't announce it. Just left it there.

Morning’s door was still closed. Had been for a while. Faint clicks and muffled button taps filtered out—the kind of sound Maruki had grown used to.

He leaned a little on one hand, twisting back to glance toward the hallway.

"You've been there for a while, haven't you?" he called out lightly, not loud enough to pry, just enough to be heard if Morning was listening. Suppose it's not videogames it's something else.

No answer, but he didn’t expect one right away.

The plant’s leaves shifted gently as the last drops settled in the soil. Maruki ran a careful finger along the rim of the pot, wiping away a stray splash. His gaze drifted to the spectacle case again.

He stood up, stretching with a soft sigh, back cracking in a way that reminded him he wasn’t the age he felt in his head. Then, hands on his hips, he glanced back toward the hallway one more time.

“If you’re hungry later, I picked up that strawberry milkshake you like. The one with the weird mascot. And the spicy chips that pretend they’re not spicy.”

He said it with the casual rhythm of a routine. Like he’d say it again tomorrow, and the next day. Like nothing had to be forced.

And then, he reached for a sticky note from the drawer, scribbled something quickly in his looping handwriting, and gently stuck it to the ribboned case.

“No pressure. Just thought it might be useful. – Doc”

He went back into the kitchen to wash away the watering can in the sink.

Re: Rank 2: back at home, 19:00

[paradisefraught]

A moment passes and Morning, already bundled up in cat-themed PJs and with a small case of bedhead, pokes his head out of his room. "Milkshake?"

[takutomaruki]

As he set the watering can away, he wiped his hands off with one of the hand towels hanging at the side before leaving the kitchen to spot Akira there.

Back in his world, Maruki couldn't imagine the leader of the phantom thieves being this relaxed around him- despite them being pretty close confidants in the grand scheme of things. The cat-themed PJs and the bedhead.

Ah. Ah, right.

"Akira-kun in my world used to drink a lot of those back when we talked in Shujin's courtyard, you do like them, right? Or- or not?"

[paradisefraught]

"I love milkshakes!! I don't know about the weird mascot, though..." the door creaks as he pushes it open, sleepy but happy. "Where is it?"

[takutomaruki]

"It's...supposed to be a walking chilli pepper," he remarks as he picks up said chips and shows it off to Morning with a quick jiggle- just to let him know where the goods are. He even slid the milkshake to his side. "What were you up to?"

[paradisefraught]

"Oh, that guy! Now I remember. Yum." He reaches out for the milkshake, taking a large, refreshing sluuuuurp. "I was nodding off while browsing the internet."

[takutomaruki]

"Quite fascinating, isn't it?" Maruki can't help but grin at the mention of the internet as he watches Morning slurp away the milkshake. "How the internet functions in a way as if things continue despite everything being static."

He goes over to arrange some of the pots in the right manner and examine their state- just to make sure there weren't any holes or spots he needed to worry about before getting down to business. "Found anything interesting?"

[paradisefraught]

"Lots of orbs."

[takutomaruki]

"Wha-"

He blinks at the sentence. "Ah- right. The orbs. April Fool's was...something else."

"Actually," he straightened up and left the pots. "You still have your mini orb?"

[paradisefraught]

"Yes! But the orbs are all the media here, too. They have an orb TV station."

[takutomaruki]

An...orb station. Right.

The twitching brow on Maruki's forehead gives away his awkwardness. "Is that so?" He tilted his head as he went to one of the shelves where his books splayed along with notes, a plant residing right in one of the compartments, as he picked off the orb he's hidden behind the pot. "Well I think- we should honour them. Let's put our orbs together. I am guessing that since everything is connected by cognition- maybe that will influence the channel too?"

[paradisefraught]

"It already has, I think. Lemme go grab mine!" With a yawn, Morning jogs back into his room to fetch his orb. "Oh--what about Ichinose-hakase's?"

[takutomaruki]

Takuto watched the boy quickly rush into his room and get his orb out- meanwhile he turned his over in his hand- glancing at the funny looking stubble poking from the chin which melted away with the clothes and the labcoat. That was just his school uniform. Who comes up with the designs for all this? If it were winter would he be wearing a little beanie as well?

When he sees Morning pop back again, Maruki has already lined up his orb on one of the side tables next to a pile of books. "Hm?"

"Oh- she's placed hers at her main work desk. Figured that seemed fair, you know?"

[paradisefraught]

"Yeah...that's fair." Akira puts his own orb -- in his cold-weather Shujin uniform -- in front of Maruki's slightly-larger one, but off to the side a bit. Plenty of space next to Dr. Maruki's orb for...well. Anyone else's, really.

Akira takes a sip of his drink. "Anything else?"

[takutomaruki]

And there it is.
The orb residing next to his, typically staring them in Shujin, reminded him of his dynamic with the Akira back home. If only he knew how to knit... or maybe he could imagine the clothes for the mini dolls that resemble them? At times he even ended up forgetting the true potential of Azathoth sometimes.

But one thing at a time. Morning's question raises his brows as he quickly backs up and moves to the table. "Remember that little project I was working on earlier?"

With that, he leans forward, grabs the small bag, and pulls out the packaged spectacle case from earlier, nicely tied with a ribbon. He picks it up and presents it to Akira from the table "I believe I have made the final prototype. Still not the complete product I am..." his head sways from side to side. "-still figuring the when for that." He knows what date Morning's birthday was given that they had filled it on the first day for the DNA test and really- the idea of fatherhood hadn't fully settled in yet. Still working on it.

[paradisefraught]

"I don't re-- oh!!" Morning's eyes go wide when he spots the gift. "Gimme!!"

Gleeful, he rips open the packaging and discards the bow. "What is it?"

[takutomaruki]

There's a spectacle case residing within the careful packaging that Takuto ends up giggling at when it gets ripped.

"Remember when you said you couldn't perceive the cognitive world? Well, I took a peek at the games you played and...figured I could give you a little something to help you."

[paradisefraught]

The...cognitive world? Oh! Akira pockets his own glasses and puts on the new ones. "How do they work?"

[takutomaruki]

Maruki quickly grabbed the spectacle case for safekeeping, preparing the other as he stepped back in lieu of demonstrating.

"As of now, they will always be in effect once you put them on," he starts explaining. "I am thinking of specific gestures like either-" he lifts his glasses over his head then drops them on the bridge of his nose again. "To turn them on and off or have a button installed at the side. Either way you will be able to percieve cognitive phenomena like personas or shadows."

"Which I know- you can perceive Azathoth but not the other things. So far. That said-" he comes in closer, realizing that he missed a very important detail. "Can you promise me something?"

[paradisefraught]

"Ooh! Do they need to be charged, or...?" He stops himself just before he clicks the button. "Hmm? What's that?"

[takutomaruki]

Maruki blinked when Morning went ahead and pressed the button at the side anyway. "It's a trigger. Just in case you get distressed by seeing something which catches you off guard."

And it totally doesn't send him a notification on his phone when he does that. He is forever grateful for finding an engineer online who helped him set up the mechanism in his phone without making it too clunky.

"Would you like to test it out?"

[paradisefraught]

"Of course!!" Morning beams, eyes full of trust and wonder. "I can't wait to see what's going on...!"

[takutomaruki]

A glimmer of pride dared to show in Maruki's face as he ruffled his hair and gestured at his room. "Okay first, get changed. The areas are risky and can be prone to danger, I will cover you if anything happens~," he quickly adds in the end, like calming a shaking horse. "Promise me you won't leave my side, Morning. Can you do that for me?"