InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "D is for depressing!"

disappear_npc (disappear_npc) wrote in disappear_plot,
@ 2011-04-08 19:49:00

Endgame Dungeon 2
The group arrives at the planned location on Friday, and are herded onto a bus with little ceremony. They reach their destination soon enough...

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Re: XVII. THE STAR

omgboyskissing
2012-10-28 03:25 am UTC (link)

The sky above the carnival is dark and moonless, and the starry canopy of a clear summer night serves as a striking backdrop to the massive ferris wheel shining in the distance.

When Yoshimi comes to, she's standing in the main arena. It's incredibly crowded by Shadows, with long lines snaking out from what seem to be the biggest attractions: the tilt-a-whirl and the funhouse. The crowds make it difficult to move any further into the park right now. None of the other visitors have faces, aside from a young couple in line for the tilt-a-whirl. Yoshimi knows them, but some disquieting fragment of a memory keeps her from taking even a step in their direction.

There are about half a dozen staff members hanging around, all of them dressed in wild, glittering costumes that seem to fit right in with the overall theme. Their masks do something to compensate for the fact that none of them have faces, either. A few try to direct her towards one attraction or another: Try your luck at the lollipop tower, miss? The petting zoo's worth a go, you know. Let's take your picture – it'll last longer. Say, ever been on a tilt-a-whirl? Cheshire over there seems to be having a good time.

Standing in the midst of it all is a humanoid figure, pitch-black except for its piercing yellow eyes.

Yoshimi tries to look everywhere at once, tries to take it all in so that she can get her bearings. Where is this place...? She remembers white, endless white, and things spinning out of control... she makes a move to flag down one of the employees, hoping for an answer that she can use to orient herself.

They ignore her. The carnival and its people mill and whirl around her. The black figure is the only constant. Voices rise up out of the din, collide, merge, join together: What will become of thee?

It's a good question. She locks eyes with the silhouette in the center of it all. “H-hello?” Even without other features, it strikes her as incredibly familiar, like someone she met in a dream once. “You know who I am, don't you?”

The myriad voices rise up again, more urgent: What will become of thee? The figure's yellow eyes stare, spear, pin.

"I - I don't know!" A beat. She considers the pieces of the puzzle before her. Memories of a battle, nonsensical visions. Maybe her life's flashing before her eyes while she bleeds out in prison. "Am I dying? Is this...”

A voice lifts up out of the din of the crowd. "Living scared, that's not really living. I'm done with that."

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Re: XVII. THE STAR

omgboyskissing
2012-10-28 03:28 am UTC (link)

"What?" The voice triggers another half-memory, another strange certainty that she can't explain. “That's me, isn't it? That's my voice. But when did I...”

She doesn't know when she said it. Her reality's shifting, two sets of memories warring for dominance. This quiet life in a tranquil city – it hadn't really been hers, had it? There was something else, something alternately beautiful and terrifying that she now sees reflected in the strange intensity of the Shadow's golden eyes. She'd been someone else, once.

The figure speaks again. Millions of voices join together, and demand an answer: What will become of thee?

"There's no telling,” she counters. She knows that much about this half-remembered version of herself from the other side of the looking glass – Tachibana Yoshimi did not pretend to know what the future held. The rules kept changing, anyway: Furukawa Shingo had died in a car accident, until he hadn't; Sato Kei had been tragically deceased, until he wasn't; the past had been immutable, until she'd fallen down yet another rabbit hole and ended up in an alternate reality. Magic and monsters and miracles had all proven themselves real, and she was so far beyond placing bets about what was going to happen next.

“All I know is that I'll get some living in, and then I'll die, same as everyone. Maybe to you, or maybe to the angels, or maybe I'll just get old.”

The crowd's noise dies, the lights die, the world darkens for a brief second. There's a flash. The anti-bullying club gathered around a table, eating pizza, and then the lights and crowd have switched back on: What fear lies in thy heart?

"Letting–" Yoshi takes a deep breath; the memory rings true, and suddenly she's sure of who she is, sure which life she actually lived. "Letting everything slip through my fingers - people and places and times that I can't hold on to. Not reaching out and taking every chance I've got, or wasting whatever time I get before my number comes up."

She thinks, as always, of the little black cat Shadow that haunted her carnival, the cautionary tale calling out I need more time, I need more time, the echoing voice that terrified her into perpetual action.

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Re: XVII. THE STAR

omgboyskissing
2012-10-28 03:30 am UTC (link)

Another voice from the crowd rises up, a girl's voice, familiar, determined: "Living scared, that's not really living! I'm done with that."

The shadow thing speaks again, a legion of voices as one: What must thou do?

The girl's voice is right, she realizes – she's been running for a long time. But not tonight.

“I want to fight for my future, even if it's a bust.” She gestures over at the tilt-a-whirl. “People's lives are hanging by a thread right now. Maybe I die trying to do something about it. Maybe I lose everything. Maybe this, maybe that.” It sounds like she's finally sick of contemplating maybes. “I don't know if I can change the future, but I know what is going to happen. I'm going to give everything I have to find out.”

She and the Shadow are silent, and for a moment, it's just the buzz of the carnival. Yoshi tilts her head back, drinking in the skyline. She understands how she got lost in this place.

“Fight with me, Gullveig.”

The Shadow steps forward, eyes glittering in the light of the ferris wheel. “All this city will be your enemy, Seeress of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you.”

Yoshi smiles. Maybe this, maybe that – it doesn't matter. Come what may, she's ready to go hard.

“But first they must catch me.”

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	Re: XVII. THE STAR allthatshimmers 2012-10-28 06:04 am UTC (link)
	The Star guides us gently to answers and, in time, ventures to hope. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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