a winter labyrinth

[townmusician]

断ち切るしかないんだろ
注いだ冬は心のラビリンス
後戻りなんて出来ないから
やりきるしかないんだろ
黒い気持ちと手を繋いだって構わない
抱きしめたっていいh

I have to break free
This pouring winter is my heart's labyrinth
I can't go back anymore, so
I have to finish this
I don't care if you took my hand with dark motives
I want you to hold me close

Comments

ROUND 6

[townmusician]

[That's a lot of damage to the poor tiger, which snaps at Richard (15) in its final moments... At least it went out with a bang?

The dog doesn't get quite as poetic a send off, as it can't muster even a puff of smoke (4) before it falls over.

Which means that only Haruka is left, and he's not looking too good after the hits he's taken, even if some of them were just grazing him. Surely this is the end, right? He doesn't look like he has much will to fight left in him after watching the animals get killed so ruthlessly.

But he's an idol. Idols sell dreams—they sell an ideal of the world, a vision of perfection.

One last song.]

月夜に埋もれた　孤独に散る花びら
一つに重なり夜空へ

Hidden in the moonlit night, petals scatter in loneliness
Overlapping one another into the night sky

[The lights on stage go blindingly bright, for just a moment, and when they fade away the stage itself is... gone.

Instead, characters find themselves standing in the place they find themselves happiest, a utopia just for them.

Haruka is there, but whether or not he can be seen is another matter entirely.]

[strawsandals]

[ A place where he finds himself happiest...

...It's in his hut. Not the one he lived in as a child; it's one that he and Ik-soo lived in together. He's there, surrounded by the Dragons, Hak, Yona – his friends from here like Schneider, Celeste, Mafuyu, Atem, Aerith, and the list goes on...

But there's someone missing. Someone he cannot see at all (1). ]

You think this is going to make me happy?! Get back here, Haruka!

[idealitas]

[ i coco I'm borrowing your (1) reasons, consider it an apology for the yamato spam. spamato.

yi sang was taking a nap in his happiest place because it had a nice blue sky to rest under... until he got woken up by Yoon yelling for Haruka. ]

...

[ also he got a (5) so he can't see that guy either, unfortunately. ]

Are you looking for him?

[strawsandals]

[ Sorry, Yi Sang......wakey wakey!! ]

Yeah, I am... Sorry for waking you up.

[townmusician]

[Sorry, Yoon, the idol is in another castle.]

Re: ROUND 6

[unweathered]

[ What...is...

the scent of oranges wafts in the air and Schneider blinks, finding herself in a too familiar grove with her loved ones in the distance, waving. Something like anger begins to rise up in her chest]

...hey, this is a pretty shitty thing to pull. Cut this out.

[ She's mad and looking around now (19)]

[townmusician]

[Schneider will be able to find Haruka pretty easily—the "utopia" made for her isn't very large, and it eventually bleeds away to a blank, featureless room where Haruka is sitting, leaning against a wall with his eyes closed.]

You can't blame me for showing you what you wanted to see.

[unweathered]

[Schneider lifts her gun, cold fury sweeping through her]

Don't fucking give me that bullshit. Trying to trap me in petty illusions? I'm not so simple. How about you show us what you wanted to see instead?

[townmusician]

Hey, don't shoot the messenger.

[He doesn't even bat an eye at being threatened, looking back at Schneider.]

I don't have anything I want, not like you do. The "ideal dream" isn't something that's mine to reach for.

[cleansewithfire]

[ Sunrise's eyes widen the moment she sees Richard get chomped on by the tiger, something protective and vengeful rising within her.

...And then she suddenly finds herself in the aisle of seats in front of a stage—not like this venue, but the kind you'd expect in a theatre. She's supposed to be watching a play performed by her troupe back home, where she can show the joy of performances with all the people she cares about. Eli, Mafuyu, Sayaka, Atem, Yoon, Argenti, Yi Sang...Richard, too.

But she just saw Richard get hurt. Even this happiness cannot extinguish her anger.

She tries to look for Haruka but can't see squat (8). ]

Mr. Haruka.

[ Get out here. ]

[townmusician]

[Richard stabbed the tiger! It was self-defense! Haruka has done nothing wrong.

She can keep looking, though, in the fake happiness made from her desires. It doesn't seem like Haruka is interested in coming out to talk—at least not at this moment.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ Then Sunrise is attempting to leave this imaginary theater, though she also expects it will do squat. ]

[townmusician]

[She can find the edges of the theater, finding that the theater itself is inside a larger room, as if it's just a diorama.]

cw: terminal illness mention

[prozaic]

[What makes Shalem the happiest?

A world where his Oripathy is gone, a world where he no longer has to bother running from the Crimson Troupe because they're gone. A world where Phantom, against all odds, has his memories back and is no longer incapable of discerning what's terrible for him and what's good. He's well and truly free... but he has changed so much that everyone still acts sweet to him, like he's the quiet man they've always known, and not Abyss, the man who'd finally grown into himself. They see him as Shalem, ever reliable, gentle, and just a bit pessimistic, preferring to keep his head down and work with a smile, waiting for his life to end thanks to the Oripathy.

But he doesn't have Oripathy now. It's been cured somehow-- and that is impossible. It makes his entire goal impossible. What is he to do with all of this life he's been given?

And where is Haruka, the only person who ever accepted him as Abyss?

Such a sweet, sweet lie. It hurts his teeth.

Shalem takes a deep breath, and shakes his head. It's time to ignore this and look for Haruka (16).]

Haruka. You know this won't work on me.

You cannot pour water into an abyss, and expect it to be filled.

[townmusician]

[The boundaries of the utopia are easy enough to find—there's a lot of you, after all, and even though the entrance seems hidden away, Shalem can find a door that seems out of place.

The door leads to an empty room, where Haruka sits with his legs crossed.]

Not a fan of pretty fantasies, Shalem?

[prozaic]

My favourite genre... is tragedy. [Shalem closes the door behind him, and then makes a beeline for Haruka, leaning over to brush the back of his hand over Haruka's cheek.] Pretty fantasies are at their most worth when they're a prelude to the most painful drop in a protagonist's life.

But I am not a protagonist, and that fantasy was missing something vital for me to be content with it. Can you guess what it is?

[fullmoonmutt]

[ He's going to...! Stop? Where did the palace go? When the lights fade, Eli instead finds himself back at the camp with mom and the usual crew, out there in the wide open wilderness. This is where he's happiest. Only being here makes zero sense. ]

...the hell? What are you trying to pull now?

[ He definitely can't see Haruka (9). ]

[townmusician]

[Eli can sense that he's close to being able to find wherever Haruka is hidden away, but wherever it is remains out of reach for now.

There's a response to his question, though it doesn't quite help narrow down the direction he should be looking.]

This is what you wanted to see. I didn't choose this for you.

[fullmoonmutt]

But you're the one making it happen!

[ He's listening carefully, trying to figure out a direction. Where is he? Wheeere? ]

[finalmix]

[ what constitutes an utopia for an immortal being like joshua?

he's on the top of 104 in shibuya - his shibuya, his city of hopes and dreams and everything in between, and his city thrives, bouncing back from the depths when he has deemed it beyond saving. and next to him, by his side-- ]

Neku.

[ because of course. the one person who trusts him above all else, even despite everything.

but the illusion is too sudden, too fake, too much of a dream, when he knows that neku is safely tucked away beyond the grasp of whatever trickery this palace employs, and-- ]

You're not really here, are you?

[ because that's a nat20 perception roll so he's probably looking at someone who isn't neku. is it haruka? or someone else? jury's out at the moment, but that's not his partner for sure. ]

A shame, Haruka~

[townmusician]

[The Neku in front of him is just an illusion—Haruka is in his own space, though whether he's in his own little utopia is up for debate.]

Is the shame that you wish this was real?

[That even someone like Joshua yearns for something.]

[finalmix]

[ there's a slight tilt of his head. ]

Always, but Neku and I always belonged to different worlds, so it's also always been wishful thinking~

[ neku belongs in the realground, joshua tells himself, but there's always that impossible what if.

joshua's always been a realist, that way. a shame, but not really something that he can do anything about unless neku dies again--

but it's not about neku. this is about haruka.

folded arms, joshua looking at haruka thoughtfully. ]

You seem particularly invested in showing us happiness at the expense of your own.

[ledbythewind]

[The pain of the tiger's fangs sinking into his shoulder draws a sharp cry... but then, as the scenery fades away around him, reforming itself into a clifftop covered with flowers and shaded by an enormous tree, the rest of the sound dies in his throat.

Asbel and Sophie turn to look back at him with a smile, holding out their hands as if to gesture him to come closer, to take another look at where those names are still carved into the bark of the tree even seven years later. Isn't that what they'd vowed? That no matter what happened, the three of them would always be friends...

... there's someone else there among the flowers too, though. Several someones - the people he's met here, Sunrise and Mafuyu and Fray and Shalem and everyone else who has shown him that perhaps humanity really isn't as awful as he'd managed to convince himself.

If there's anyone else there, however, he can't see them (9).]

This is...

[townmusician]

[It's a perfect world, just for him, a dream packaged neatly. He can enjoy this for as long as he wants, if he lets himself...

It won't last forever, and nothing in this utopia will change, because it's just a rough fabrication. That can still be enough, can't it?]

[ledbythewind]

[Can it? Richard really would like it to be, but...

He takes one, two steps forward, still in disbelief. This isn't all just another dream, right?]

How did all of you get here?

[In the back of his mind, there's still a certain amount of awareness that this scene shouldn't really exist. There's no way it can exist now, not when...]