GRAVEYARD 2.0

[retellers]

GRAVEYARD Well, that sucked. But no matter what your death was like—whether it was something peaceful or traumatic, you'll find yourself waking in a completely white room on the floor. Small and empty, there isn't anything else there besides an open door to walk through. But before you do that, you'll probably notice that whatever injuries you may have had, including whatever may have been the death blow, are now gone. That's exciting. Stepping out of the room, it seems that you're in a large... house? with three different floors. Everything from floor, ceiling to furniture is completely white, except for the drawings that are plastered to the walls in each room. These are all colorful, drawn in colored pencils and crayon, and resemble a child's drawing. The other notable thing are the windows. While they're present all around the building, looking out of them only shows TV static. Besides that, everything is furnished with the absolute bare minimum of each room. The first floor is all typical common areas one would find in a house. There's a kitchen, living room area, laundry room, dining room, and a main hallway where the stairs are. There are also helpful drawings in these rooms that show the rooms much more lavishly decorated than they actually are. There's a door that appears to be the way to exit the building, it's locked. The second floor consists of nothing but twenty bedrooms. Each room has one queen sized bed, an empty dresser, and an attached bathroom with only a sink, toilet, and shower. Like the first floor, each bedroom has drawn pictures that show it looking much more lavish than it actually does. Thanks for nothing, artist! The third floor only has two rooms. One appears to be a home office with nothing but a desk and two chairs, one behind it and one in front of it. While there's blank pieces of paper and crayons on the desk, the note that was previously there is gone. The other room is much larger, and it's completely empty save for the many drawings lining its walls— in fact, the walls are covered in them, much more than in any other room. On closer inspection, though, it seems like these aren't actually drawings? The papers seem to be showing scenes from the living area. Everything from inside the hotel to the areas beyond the bridge are visible here. However, when curfew hits on Thursday nights, they revert to being normal drawings! Except for the fact that they're all drawings of stick figures being murdered in various ways. Well. At least there's plenty of things to draw with, if you get bored. Also, a handy link to the previous post.

NAVIGATION locations ₓ˚. statuses *+:｡ ic profiles :ₓo ic rules ･ﾟﾟ･｡ audience requests murder proposals ｡✧o private conversations ･ﾟo｡ curfew ･ﾟ✧ memories

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[suddenlybees]

[ It's okay. It's all him. The truths, the lies, the mountain that crushes his chest and makes it so hard to get up at the start of each day. ]

I will not. I will hold the mountain upon my shoulders, and suffer so they don't have to. That compassion is all I have. I will not throw it away.

[ His lies stem from kindness, his actions are to protect. The weakness and the contradiction is what makes him him. They are not things he can let go of, because if he does, he will truly then be nothing.

If he fails this test, he does not care. If this world falls apart, it does not matter. It is not his world. This is not his life. His love is for his brother and sister back in Kashiwa, for Seto wandering the streets trying to find him because he's late coming home, for Kido at the stove keeping a pot of curry warm in case he comes home. And he's going to go home to them. He does not need to die here, nor stay here and save a world which is not real. ]

[heartablaze]

[There is silence, and nothing but the sound of useless, useless, useless, and a heart that pounds with what truly matters despite the words descending on his soul like a rain of knives. He feels something reach in, grab that conviction with a grip like a vice.

Time warps.

He's back with his siblings. Both are fussing over him, asking where he's been. In front of them stands the robots, with a third joining them. It has no weapon, and Kano will find that his bow has vanished entirely.

As soon as Kano has regained clarity, the three of them are swallowed up in light, reappearing in what feels like a bubble of protection, now hovering many feet off the ground. They can all still see one another and interact as normal, but they will have an inherent knowledge that they are now inside their Mashin.

They have only one objective left. To storm the castle, find the Pillar, save them, and thus save this husk of a world.

Then they can go home.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano's Mashin stretches its wings and takes off into the sunset, byeeee ]

[suddenlybees]

[ He tries to leave but Kido nearly bites off his head for even thinking of ditching, so castle it is.

Kano takes extra special care to damage the castle itself as much as he can because fuck that, while Kido charges straight ahead and has to be gently redirected by Seto who is good at keeping his eyes and ears out for where to go and how best to do it. ]

[heartablaze]

[Kano commits rampant property damage. Neat! The castle cannot fight back so Kano may destroy as much as he would like.

For being a place for someone that was supposed to have something guarding them or something that had captured them against their will, this castle seems completely empty. For a brief moment, Kano's mind flickers elsewhere - to a fight outside this same castle, to a man who refused to give the Pillar away to the Knights, who demanded to know why the Pillar needed to pray only for Cefiro, before being cut down and destroyed on those very same steps.

...

They're in what appears to be an audience hall, a round glass floor surrounded by waterfalls, open to the sky.

The Pillar is trapped here somewhere, right? So... where are they?]

[suddenlybees]

[ He's opened so many doors and stuck his hand inside so many pots but nothing. Where could the Pillar be hiding? He sort of wants to just call out, but- would the Pillar even respond to him, if they could? ]

Hey, Seto. I know you don't like to, but maybe you could do the thing?

[ The mind reading thing, he means, to see if Seto can pick up on any thoughts floating around that aren't his or Kido's. But Seto is also water and if he takes it to meaning parting the waterfalls to peek at what might behind there, that works too. ]

[heartablaze]

[Seto is hesitant, but he tries? He hears something? A girl?

All three of them immediately black out.

...

Kano will awaken, his mashin gone, to a sunny image of a grassy park. His family sits near the top of a hill, relaxed, together, happy. Nearby sits Hikaru, the same outfit as before, surrounded by three older boys and her own parents.

She turns to him, and smiles.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Uh. Kano is sort of already halfway on his feet and ready to trek up the hill when Hikaru turns to him. He doesn't exactly smile back, but it's this sort of expression, the sort of expression you wear when you're invited to a friend's house and immediately ditch said friend to go pet their cat instead. ]

[heartablaze]

[She just giggles, leaning to kiss her eldest brother on the cheek before rising to her feet. Again, she has to keep her distance.]

Is this your family, Shuuya?

[suddenlybees]

[ Oh, conversation means he can't just move on and walk away. ]

Um, hm. No, they're not. But they're probably supposed to be?

[heartablaze]

[She nods quietly, looking back at her own family with heavy eyes.]

I tried the best I could. I... guess you could call it a selfish moment.

[suddenlybees]

[ He blinks in surprise, before realization seems to settle. ]

A lie for the sake of somebody else's happiness, huh? That sort of thing isn't terrible.

[heartablaze]

[She nods, though it's shallow as she folds her hands in front of herself.]

I wanted to see them one more time. I... wanted you three to have something nice, at least for a little bit, before you do what you need to do.

Seto-kun and Kido-chan can't see me. I think, right now, they just think they're having a dream.

[suddenlybees]

[ What was it that he needed to do— he'd entirely forgotten, caught up in the euphoria of seeing his fake brother and fake sister, aching for them so much that he'll take even the lies. ]

What a dream to have! You make this sound like a last meal, you know? Something nice to have, because we won't have that chance in the future. Aren't you faithless?

[heartablaze]

[Her smile pains and doesn't reach her eyes.]

Not at all. I have faith you'll do what you have to do. You all earned the Mashin by knowing exactly what it was that was most important to you, and not wavering from it.

[It's all very nice. The nostalgia and the sense of belonging, even though there is a part of it that feels distant and untouchable, like dwelling in a memory that had long since passed, almost bittersweet.]

A long time ago, about a month after we met... we told each other a story, didn't we? Do you remember how it went?

[suddenlybees]

[ It's nice and he doesn't trust nice. Doesn't feel like he deserves it, doesn't understand when it's handed to him. ]

Was it so long ago... Ah, something about a boy locked up in a tower, and a little girl tearing herself apart to save him, wasn't it? You're gonna have to remind me how it ended.

[heartablaze]

Something like that.

The girl told the one who led her that she needed to remember, or else she would fall to the boy's same cruel fate. That she didn't care that he was a dragon.

She was told to leave, and she said she wouldn't. When she was presented to the boy and could not talk, she didn't move. He said all he would do was scar the world, and scar everything he touched, and she didn't move. So he took her by the hand, and they left the tower, that they might burn it to the ground and face God himself.

[A tired look towards him.]

Or... something like that.

Shuuya, what do you think the boy would have done, had their positions were reversed? If the boy was standing in front of the dragon, to the girl who never remembered... what do you think he would do?

[suddenlybees]

[ Something like that. ]

That's easy. He would have taken her hand and left the tower. What does he care if they scar the world? If everything else falls into ruin?

[ The choice would have been easy if their positions were reversed. The girl loved the world. The boy's heart was for his people. ]

[heartablaze]

[She falls silent at that.]

What if she couldn't leave with him, after all? What if she was nothing but a dragon, and the world had already crumbled at her feet, no matter what she tried? The boy would still do what he had to and find his path without her, wouldn't he?

You spoke to me once about your fate. About "tenmei". About... having your head pulled from your body, and not remembering.

This... isn't a fate I remember, Shuuya. But... someone will have to walk the path you're walking, and do what you have to do, if I can't...

[...

The scenery rumbles under their feet. Hikaru takes in a shaking breath, taking a step away from him.]

[suddenlybees]

[ If that dragon were his family, he would save her anyways. If all the dragon could do is scream and cry and bite and hurt, he would still take her hand.

He steps forward when she steps back, makes a grab for her wrist, not wanting it to be a repeat of the last time the world crumbled away beneath their feet. ]

[heartablaze]

[He makes a grab, and he hits a solid barrier past her arm's reach.]

I'm sorry. I really have to ask you to do something cruel.

But I want you to be happy... and I can't accept this fate I've doomed everyone to.

[A strong heart, once filled with nothing but stubborn kindness, now clawing with only regret and despair, trying so desperately to restore a dead world devoid of anything, of anyone, but herself.]

My Magic Knight, you have been summoned to this world because Cefiro is in great danger. The Pillar may not harm themselves, and no one from Cefiro may harm them either. But if the Pillar should find themselves falling to ruin, that their hearts would turn to nothing but disaster...

[She's crying. But she takes another step back.]

Then they may summon their Knights from another land, so that the Pillar may be killed, and that their world might continue on under someone else.

[suddenlybees]

Bullshit.

[ It's muttered under his breath. But he takes another step forward, like the world won't fall apart if he stays close. ]

You're not so expendable that the world can just try again. Why are you giving up? Do you hate everything in the world so much?

[heartablaze]

No. I... I would try, and I would keep trying, but...

Everything is gone, everyone is gone, and it's my fault. There's... a hole, that never ever got filled, and it had the reason I... I regretted...

[Their surroundings crack.]

I can't love this world like she did. I can't.

[There's the shriek of white noise in his ears, the image of three young girls in those same mashin, dropping into the castle and coming across their Pillar, their Princess Emeraude... who immediately erupted into a fiery, uncontrollable rage and attempted to kill her Magic Knights.

Only through a quiet speech directly to the heart, to one that feels so similar to this talk they have now, did the children learn. That their Pillar had failed her duty, that she had committed the simple sin of growing lonely, and falling in love.

Her world fell apart, for the sake of love for a single man.

She fought her knights, with her heart that loved Zagato. She fought herself, with her heart that loved her world. And all she begged for in the end was death. To leave behind everyone she loved so they would be happy and safe.

So that she would no longer scar the world.

And the knights went home, once their princess had died. They were left behind, consumed by grief, consumed by guilt, and consumed by leaving behind a world that needed to be truly helped with what they now knew.

It's a memory that sinks to the bones, and Kano will know with a bitter taste on his mouth that it is one that Hikaru, this Hikaru, this horrible reflection of a possible future, has completely and utterly forgotten.



Kano will come to with a start, back in the audience chamber. Seto and Kido both seem to be waking up as well. What the fuck. There's a tug on that warmth to their hearts, drawing them up past the open ceiling of the audience room, towards the darkened clouds.

Come to me, my Magic Knights, for I have one last task for you.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Sometimes you're so painfully lonely and then you fall in love. You think you've finally attained happiness, allow yourself to be happy, and then God goes "Sike!" and your world crumbles apart.

Sometimes it hurts so much, the kindest thing you can do is put an end to it.

Kano breathes out, reunites with his siblings. The three of them look to the sky, and climb the dragon's tower. ]

[heartablaze]

[Up they climb.

At the top of the castle sits a girl made of fire, ethereal, eyes clouded.

Hikaru's voice speaks directly to them.

Magic Knights, do not let your hearts be overtaken by confusion and grief. To pull you to this task was cruel, and to make you travel this land against your will was even more cruel.

Your final foe lies before you. Take the life of the Pillar, set this world free, and you may go home to the people you love.

The girl slowly rises to her feet, enormous wings of fire bursting from her back, before she shoots off into the sky. The clouds rumble, and the heat of the lightning starts to congregate, a bolt slamming into the top of the castle like an intentional attack.]