InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "if the shoe fits"

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...

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

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.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

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.”

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	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)

(Read comments) -