#yáng ukeje ddlc

[monochromaticskies]

day 7: answer

word count: 469

FANON/COLLABORATIVE: DINA BENBOUALI, YÁNG UKEJE

in which in a brief moment of 'true reality', yáng begs for answers from anyone she can find—just happening to stumble into her classmate, dina.

contains themes of drug and alcohol use, death and derealisation, as well as general horror stuff. the characters are ocs made for the DDLC universe, but can stand alone in this oneshot without any knowledge of canon. the character of dina belongs to my friend kiose (Kiose_ on wattpad), and yáng to me. other author's notes at the end.

"Jesus, Yáng," Dina snaps, grabbing the other girl roughly by the shoulders to prevent them from falling over. Normally she would immediately push Yáng away, but they aren't sober—swaying on the spot, they stare disconcertingly through her, dark eyes full of fear even now, in school, where there is no need to be.

"Dina!" Their eyes suddenly focus on Dina's face, a serious brown, suddenly appearing utterly serious, in control, at least in their face; even though, outwardly, they still look a mess, more than usual: red ribbons loose in their hair matching the one falling apart at Dina's neck, greyish, sickly. "I need you. I need your help, Dina, please—"

Shit. She makes an attempt to shush Yáng, hands slipping to their wrists, holding them tight. She's seen them like this before, but not recently. She researched how to help them through panic attacks or mania or whatever the fuck this is, but can't remember any of it now. "I'm already here," Dina says cautiously, still handling the other with as much care as she can force out as they take huge, recovering breaths. "Calm down. God, just calm down."

"I— I am calm," they manage, "but s-someone just tried to kill me, I promise, I nearly died, I don't know why and I thought you might, you know things, don't you?" All in one breath.

Yáng stares and breathes shudderingly and watches Dina like she's a god. What the hell does she know? She knows something is going on, something tearing at the edges of her reality, ripping everything she knows to shreds—she knows Yáng has changed and they drink more now, she knows she herself has gotten worse, back to dependency on anything except herself; and having this ordinary, sober version of Yáng back for this brief moment, which she knows won't last, is too much to handle when they look at Dina like this.

"Nobody tried to kill you," she whispers, even as the girl begins to sway again, as if there was a brief shift where reality returned but now they're back to where they were before. Dina has a sick awareness, she feels, that no-one else has. But even with that, her lips move to form words that she doesn't want to say: "You're okay. You're not going to die."

Yáng smiles hazily, shoulders slumping, their attentiveness and knowledge of anything being wrong slipping away back to normal. A weight settles on Dina again, one briefly lifted up when Yáng was briefly aware of something not right; but her mind has returned to its ordinary fog again, and she nudges Yáng away, eyes following them stumble down the bright white corridor. She needs answers, but tiny reprieves like that aren't going to grant her them. Dina needs someone else who knows.

this one was super fun to write, even though i'm not totally sure it will make sense to anyone going in blind—if not, sorry, feel free to ask me anything! not sure if this is canon to the story they're a part of, but it's fun to think about. it took me a while to work this one out but i'm proud of it now, and i hope you enjoyed it; see you on day eight! <3