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

[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.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ Hm...

She tries to step out the theatre so she can take a look at the rest of the room. ]

[townmusician]

[It's a room! The only thing in it seems to be the theater, and there's not much space between the theater and the walls.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ Huh. Kind of like she's in her own self-contained bubble... How's she supposed to get out of this?










She attempts to kick the wall (17) as an experiment.]

[townmusician]

[Wow! What did the wall do to her! It's innocent!

...

But the wall is just a wall, and she manages to kick a small hole into it.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ Sorry wall, she's on a mission here.

So she's kicking it again (12) to try and get the hole big enough for her to crawl through. ]

[townmusician]

[The hole gets bigger! As she keeps at it, she'll be able to make a hole big enough for her to crawl through. Good thing she's pretty small, so she won't be here all day.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ Some people might have second thoughts about crawling through a hole to gods-know-where, but not Sunrise. In she goes. ]

[townmusician]

[imagine if i just dumped her back into the labyrinth












But no, Sunrise is in a plain, barren room. Unfortunately, Haruka is there too.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ ...She has to wonder if the barren room has particular significance, though she also knows she's terrible at things like metaphors.

She will, however, approach Haruka.]

Mr. Haruka.

[townmusician]

Sunrise.

[Haruka doesn't seem surprised to see her, but he was just sitting there watching her kick through the wall, so... he had plenty of warning...]

[cleansewithfire]

[ It's like Sunrise's approach to problems usually is to hit them until they cease to be problems. ]

...You were just waiting here?

[townmusician]

Yeah? Where else would I be?

[It's his palace! He doesn't have anywhere else to go!]

[cleansewithfire]

I would not know. I just did not think you would be able to sit in an empty room, even if you can see everything else that is happening here.

[townmusician]

It's a bit plain, isn't it?

I don't need to sell myself a happy ending, though.

[cleansewithfire]

Why not?

[ It's asked in the tone of a genuine, honest-to-god question. ]

[townmusician]

My happiness isn't important. At least not for my fans.

[Because what's important for them is his image, and they'll assume from there.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ For some reason, Sunrise finds herself thinking of Five Echoes back home, and the image is one of raw indignation that Sunrise doesn't necessarily understand but can already imagine, nonetheless. ]

But what about you?

[townmusician]

[Haruka looks over at her, raising an eyebrow.]

What do you mean?

[cleansewithfire]

Is your happiness not important to you?

[townmusician]

Do you think I'm unhappy?

[...]

It's not exactly my first priority, though.

[cleansewithfire]

At least, you do not seem happy.

[ And...well, if he was, this palace would probably be going differently, she thinks. ]

[townmusician]

Mm, maybe I'm not.

[If he was happy this palace would have been a circus.]

I'm used to it, though.

[cleansewithfire]

[ There's a long pause, in the way how Sunrise doesn't speak until the thought has fully formed. ]

...I do not think anyone living should be used to it.

[townmusician]

That's an idealistic way to look at the world, isn't it?