shinjiro aragaki (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
petsthedog) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ximilialog2021-07-02 10:17 pm
petsthedog) wrote in ximilialog2021-07-02 10:17 pm
burn my dread
CHARACTERS: Shinjiro & OPEN
LOCATION: Various places on the station
DATE: 7/1
CONTENT: Exploring and shenanigans
WARNINGS: General depression themes, references to character death and suicidality
But I’m offering you that chance. To undo what you regret...in exchange for your help.
He'd assumed it a dying hallucination, he's pretty sure. Or maybe a dream. A kind fantasy to bring peace to his final moments. He can't remember what exactly he said--some wistful, sarcastic comment, maybe. But then he opens his eyes to darkness that isn't from vision fading and blurring out of focus, to flickering lights in what becomes recognizably a hospital bed. The only trace of the gunshots are scars against his skin, as though he'd had months to heal. His clothes are neatly folded within a box labeled with his name, and they are not stained and soaked through with blood.
There is an earpiece by the bed, and putting it on is the first confirmation of the voice existing outside his dreams. It's real, perhaps. There's a catch, certainly. Hopefully not the kind of catch that had come with the suppressants, with Strega. If the owner of that voice turns out as monstrous as Takaya Sakaki had, he'll feel even more pathetic than he already does.
Despite that lingering itch of suspicion and fear, though, there's something blooming in his chest that he hasn't felt in years--hope. The idea that he could fix everything he ruined back then, give Amada back his mother and the childhood he smashed along with her house...is intoxicating. He's wanted that more than anything ever since that awful night. There's little that doesn't seem worth that chance. After all, he's a dead man walking, isn't he? What else does he have to lose, at this point?
LOCATION: Various places on the station
DATE: 7/1
CONTENT: Exploring and shenanigans
WARNINGS: General depression themes, references to character death and suicidality
But I’m offering you that chance. To undo what you regret...in exchange for your help.
He'd assumed it a dying hallucination, he's pretty sure. Or maybe a dream. A kind fantasy to bring peace to his final moments. He can't remember what exactly he said--some wistful, sarcastic comment, maybe. But then he opens his eyes to darkness that isn't from vision fading and blurring out of focus, to flickering lights in what becomes recognizably a hospital bed. The only trace of the gunshots are scars against his skin, as though he'd had months to heal. His clothes are neatly folded within a box labeled with his name, and they are not stained and soaked through with blood.
There is an earpiece by the bed, and putting it on is the first confirmation of the voice existing outside his dreams. It's real, perhaps. There's a catch, certainly. Hopefully not the kind of catch that had come with the suppressants, with Strega. If the owner of that voice turns out as monstrous as Takaya Sakaki had, he'll feel even more pathetic than he already does.
Despite that lingering itch of suspicion and fear, though, there's something blooming in his chest that he hasn't felt in years--hope. The idea that he could fix everything he ruined back then, give Amada back his mother and the childhood he smashed along with her house...is intoxicating. He's wanted that more than anything ever since that awful night. There's little that doesn't seem worth that chance. After all, he's a dead man walking, isn't he? What else does he have to lose, at this point?
no subject
I guess. The people who built it were crazy rich. Only reason I could stay there was because I was part of their group for fighting these monsters called Shadows.
[Then again, building a space station probably costs a pretty penny too. So who knows. Maybe Mr. Dream Voice is saving resources on decorations for fixing regrets? Or less charitably, maybe he's just cheap.]
no subject
[ Okay, so... Let her get this straight. By the look of the place, it's Japanese. He called it a dorm and given his apparent age, it was probably for high-schoolers. And they fought monsters called Shadows?
Oh gosh, he comes from a video game, doesn't he? Like, there's no reality where this doesn't read like the premise of a video game. Okay, okay. Keep an open mind, Monika. They're on a space station, the people here have managed to give her a real body and she cannot feel a reality beyond their own. So maybe... Maybe there is a reality where this can happen and not be a video game.
None of this has to be fake. It doesn't have to be a simulation. It can be real. Real. ]
I, um... I-I see.
[ She's more acutely aware of the simulator than ever. That feeling... It's oppressing. Painful. She needs to leave it before it gets worse. But she can't just run away and let the boy alone, wondering what he's done wrong. She takes a deep breath. ]
A... Ahaha! Sorry, I didn't get enough sleep. [She forced a smile.] Shadows you said? What kind of monsters are they?