Endgame

[idolpro]

Who: You lot
Where: Game Tower
When: Day 155, sunset

[ The house is silent; you awaken in your starter rooms, with injuries healed and the gripping hold of possession released as though it were all a dream.

It wasn't though, was it? The scars that remain, whether physical or emotional, are proof of that. If you need more proof, well - when the elevator opens for you once more, to take you back down to ground level, you'll find you can carry whatever is on your person back down with you as souvenirs, although their effects don't carry over.

Once you take the elevator down, you'll find most everyone else there too - most everyone, anyway. Some are missing, and . . . well, the doors to the outside aren't opening to let anyone out, although non-participants may enter to fret over their loved ones.

Soon enough, once the last elevators go down, the doors will unlock and you'll be free to hurry home, as the last rays of the sun disappear behind the skyline. Night is coming once more. ]

Comments

[wonderlandgirl]

Shrike--

[She doesn't know what to say.

[She doesn't know what to do, where to rest her eyes, even how her face should be looking. But Wednesday would be concerned about her, and she has to be Wednesday again. She has to remember who that is.]

Shrike-san.

[softlyfalling]

Ah... Wednesday.

Sorry you're here, too.

[wonderlandgirl]

I'm sorry you are.

[She sighs.]

A... are you...

[Okay, is the word she can't form.

[Because who among them would be, now?]

[softlyfalling]

I'll manage.

I found a way to live with myself once, and I suppose I'll do it again.

You...?

[ right back at her, basically. ]

[wonderlandgirl]

I...

[She swallows. Her voice breaks...

[Cloud Nine has never felt so wrong. She's never felt the - the falsity of it so strongly as she does now, as the power wraps her in a comforting cloud of calm... but she has to, she needs it, she can't make this all about her: about her pain, and her horror, and her tears. When she speaks, her voice is shaky, but at least she's staved off the worst of it.]

I... I don't know, Shrike-san. I'm sorry. I - I did... unimaginable things, I--

[She should cry. She wants to cry.

[Instead, she just runs out of words.]

[softlyfalling]

Hey. Hey, it's—

[ it feels wrong to try and comfortingly hug someone while wearing a jacket that is absolutely filthy with various people's blood, so she shrugs it off, ties it around her waist, and pulls Wednesday into a firm hug. ]

You don't have to be all right. At least you're in a time and place where nothing's happened that can't be undone.

...we'll all find a way to live with this.

[wonderlandgirl]

[You don't have to be--

[That's it.

[That's it.

[Her powers - the powers of this place - might as well not exist again. Because she can't hold onto them, can't hold onto any of it in the face of it's okay not not be okay and she howls and spends a time she never counts sobbing into Shrike's shirt.]

I'm sorry.

[It's all she manages to choke out.]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[softlyfalling]

[ she holds her there, stroking her hair very gingerly so as to not get more blood on her. ]

I know. I know. Gods, do I know. People aren't meant to bear things like this.

[wonderlandgirl]

You... did this before?

[Wednesday raises her head, just a little.]

Shrike-san... I wish I was stronger...

[softlyfalling]

I wish I knew how to be.

...I once let something very bad have a hold on me because I was afraid, though. I'm trying not to be that person anymore, but—it's work. Like anything else.

[wonderlandgirl]

But - you're so much stronger than you think you are, Shrike-san. I... really wish I was more like you.

[softlyfalling]

Everyone keeps telling me that, but—there's a lot of different kinds of strengths, Wednesday. To love, to be kind—they're not all always useful, but. They're still necessary.

[wonderlandgirl]

I - wish I was kind, too. But... a kind person...

[She drops her head, curling her fingers in the fabric of Shrike's shirt. Perhaps it will go some way to hiding her tears.]

They... they wouldn't have done - the things I did. Would they?

[softlyfalling]

[ her face drops all expression for a fraction of a second in blind panic and then it reinstates itself. ]

—some things have a way of using kindness against you. That doesn't mean you're not...

...that doesn't mean having that quality is wrong, though. Or—that you're not good enough at it. It just means that...

...that they're cruel for turning it into a weapon.

[wonderlandgirl]

Do you really think so?

[The words are probably muffled. She's talking through tears, into the fabric of Shrike's shirt. She wants to believe it so much, but...]

I - just forgot everything. All these things that mattered to me... Shrike-san, what if that's who I really am?

[softlyfalling]

Those memories, those emotions... they were vivid, and powerful. It would be... hard, not to be swayed by them. Especially lacking experience or protections against such spirits.

I suppose... you lost your memory once already, and found your way to being a good and kind person and—I have no reason to believe you couldn't do it over again.

[wonderlandgirl]

D-did you...

[She raises her head.]

Did you - the same thing. Did it - happen to you, too?

[softlyfalling]

...yes. I'm not sure if it was exactly the same, but, well. They got in my head.

[wonderlandgirl]

And - and so you - did things you - never thought you were capable of...?

[softlyfalling]

[ she's quiet for a moment. ]

...unfortunately, I know exactly what I'm capable of, Wednesday.

[wonderlandgirl]

Oh...

[She hugs her. She doesn't know what else she should do.]

I'm sorry, Shrike-san. I always say the wrong thing. But... whatever you might be capable of, and - and even if you could have done the things that... thing wanted you to... you chose not to. Not until they forced you. So you found your way to being a good person, too.

[softlyfalling]

[ → this way ]