[ so it's not about guessing what bad went down. or didn't go down. or would have gone down? squinting at the doorway yuri left through. ignoring the menacing puppy. ]
[ When they get back, they don't see the same company at the start. Instead, there are support beams toppled down... Debris absolutely everywhere. Blood draped on the walls, the ceiling, on jagged metal sticking out here and there.
But toward the floor is their eyes trail over a hand, a leg, and bodies. So many company employee bodies.
There they see Alex trembling among the dead. Yuri notices nothing wrong here What she sees is her company... Before the collapse. The normal vision of it sifts in like sand, trying to fight for dominance. ]
--did Mike really have to fight over Ppodae with Eris again? They're both top dog lovers, so maybe their fight will actually go for a while... I'll brew you some coffee again. You probably have an overnight shift, don't you... Alex?
Rosamund is no stranger to gore, but the haphazard limbs and far flung blood are enough to make even the hardiest soldier faint. She holds her hand to her heart as she surveys the damage. There's so many people.
There's Alex. There's Yuri, talking to them like nothing's wrong.
She darts over, gently taking her by the shoulder.]
Yuri. There was a breach. All right? You're not talking to anyone right now. Except us.
[ at rosamund's side, nodd breathes. it's focused breathing, timed by arbitrary beats he counts silently as he softens his vision. that is a lot of blood. those people. what fresh hell did yuri experience that this was lurking right beneath? ]
[ Alex, to Yuri, talks to her about how she does have an overnight shift and she wished those guys could stop arguing over who loves the dog more... Yuri could have this memory—she could forget and the guilt inside her for being the only survivor of this branch can be erased.
The voices that haunt her can disappear.
For Rosamund and Nodd, they see Alex... Wearing the head of an abnormality. There's a reason for this, why she's still alive while the rest are dead. Despite being reliable, being trustworthy, being kind—she... ]
[ She could let it be this way forever. Even after being the sole survivor of this branch, she would be forever an outcast for something that she couldn't help. She wanted to live. She lived and she was punished for it.
Here, she could just live and experience none of that, despite the horrors of L Corp itself. She would rather face that than be reduced to nothing, to have her life not mean anything. She-- ]
[Rosamund looks between the two. Her immediate instinct is to get Yuri to lower the gun, which is followed at once by a second, crueler thought: she should shoot right away.]
No — no it wasn't wrong to want to live. But what happened here, Yuri? What really happened?
[ they're in a manor. they're in a spaceship. nodd attempts to hold onto what he recalls as the truth of things, but it feels far, then farther away as yuri lifts the gun. she'd wanted to introduce them to alex. wanted to show them the cute dog. ]
[ Alex looks at her, but it's hard to see her expression. This mask she wears represents the struggles she suffered. The struggles Yuri didn't. She lunges at her...
More abnormalities are found amok. Razing this skeleton of a building. They screech and groan, attacking nearby survivors who are barely holding on, then when they finish with them... The fresh smell of blood mixes with the acrid tang already in the air.
The monsters start crawling to Nodd and Rosamund, launching sharp tendrils blindly at their direction. They are not the only thing approaching. Something large, something ominous, creating large footfalls as it approaches beyond the two girls.
The atrocities can end if you accept the truth. It can also end if you accept the lie. ]
[ Yuri is immediately taken aback by Alex yelling at her. She's about to spiral, her single gray eye becoming the source of her tears running down her face. Her worst thoughts had been realized by a possible illusion. The Abnormalities continue to breach. The underground building is going under lockdown. Everything--Everything is happening all at once.
It was never wrong that Alex wanted to live, just like how it wasn't for Yuri.
But if Yuri had to choose, she would pick herself over her again and again.
Even if it was a temporary relief... that's all it'll ever be. The City is not so kind. She accepts the truth.
[Rosamund pulls out her own blaster. It's not the weapon she's familiar with, but she's not confident bows and arrows could pierce whatever that tombstone thing is, or any number of these monsters. And Almathea's words still ring in her head. The right shot could collapse part of this mansion. If that's what it comes to, then so be it.
But Yuri isn't gun shy. Yuri's shaking loose of the illusion. She can see it all now, and the poor girl is a fountain of tears. Rosamund flinches as she takes her shot.
It wasn't wrong for either to live.]
Yuri!
[But call her selfish: one girl deserved it more than the other.]
[ nodd has seen horrors, but these veer beyond what he was built to comprehend. the wires, the glowing, the blasters. he finds himself turning his back toward rosamund, eying the growing hoard of anomalies. already figuring out what he might need to do in order to create a pathway--
he turns his head when yuri screams. wordless. the pain must be so immense, to have to choose oneself and admit to it.
the candelabra gets chucked at the tombstone thing. a blind attack. his eyes remain on yuri. ]
[ That's right. Branch D-02 is crumbling, collapsing, and they can hear the building giving way. Parts of the ceiling falls while the walls shudder as a threat. It's more darkness with horrors crawling with elongated limbs and multiple eyes crawling out of every hole and crack made. Their fangs bare, but perhaps that isn't the most disturbing. It's the ones that look innocent with their round eyes that draw people in, like a lure. Sweet yet full of insatiable hunger.
Rosamund uses her blaster to shoot and her aim strikes true, leaving a gnarly hole in one abnormality. It winds back its hooks and lines to let out a shrill shriek that knifes through the air, but it prepares its next attack. Its limbs spider out to anchor itself. For Nodd, his blind attack works on the tombstone... It's not as mobile as the other abnormalities, so it groans in pain and suffers pitifully. It does, however, try to reach out for him aflame, threatening to scald him. The path does open more thanks to his efforts.
... But they can see it's an infestation ahead.
Yuri, she shoots Alex. It would be comforting that she wore the clay headpiece, but the blaster is powerful. It turns her head into nothing in a millisecond with the pieces scattered and splattered. Remnants of her paint Rosamund, Nodd, and most of all Yuri crimson.
The blood painted across their faces, drenched into their clothes, it's warm. This is the will to survive.
Yuri has chosen her answer, but what about the other two? Do they believe they deserve to live? As this question enters their mind, the corpses splayed below them take the shape of people they know and love. Would they choose themselves...? The exit beyond opens to shine a bright light through the dust and dark. Is that wrong? They and Yuri can run. They can abandoned all these people to survive. They don't need to be sacrificed.
They hear—no, they sense these questions being asked of them. From where, they do not know. Perhaps it's from the nest of tragedy, this very manor. ]
[ Yuri catches herself hyperventilating, but tries to stifle it. She puts the blaster on her back (however it's being carried when it's not in her hands) and dashes towards Rosamund and Nodd to grab their hands and runs to where the exit is so that they can get out of this crumbling fantasy.
Into the light that they go. Yuri will not allow the other two to stay, even for a brief moment. ]
[They're surrounded. Even if it's only phantoms Rosamund's pulse pounds to panic. Yuri shoots and the blood slaps them all with the brand of murderers, of cowards.
It's not always cowardly to choose yourself.
She sees Timothy's body, crumpled and smaller than it should be. Ylfa next to him, her red cloak soaked, wolfen eyes glazed and gazing at nothing.
Then Yuri has her hand. Yuri pulls her though. It's not real, but even if it were?
There's roaring, snapping, the crackle of fire, the collapse of a building.
The dead can't be risen here. And the living should live.]
[ the infestation swarms, too many monstrous bodies clustered in the hall for nodd to have a chance without his keys--and them working, no less. it takes movement, both of the ladies with him turning away, to remind him there are choices at all. the sensations ringing through him offer unkind questions--ones he would rather ignore and has built himself for the avoidance thereof.
deserving--why did he ever use that word? since when has he gotten what he deserved? it's down that hall. in those mouths--
but they're leaving. ]
Some other time.
[ he leaves with them, less of his preference for life but rather acceptance of yuri's. ]
[ They're away from the chaos--the Abnormalities, the corpses that littered the halls... Yuri takes the time and finally lets go of both hands, but the two would be able to feel that her hands were shaking the whole time. She uses her sleeve to wipe the blood off her face. ]
... I'm sorry for dragging you two into it and not being careful enough.
No. [Rosamund shakes her head, taking the other girl's shoulder in on hand as she cups her cheek with the other.]
Yuri, none of that was your fault. Okay? You didn't do anything to hurt us, and whatever happened before...that was bigger than any one person can take credit for.
[ yuri's trembling fingers slip from his own. poor girl--not a girl, a woman. a fighter. but sort of, compared to nodd, a kid. carrying so much she surely hasn't earned. ]
It isn't your fault--any of it, but especially not right now. We're in the storm-mansion.
[ he should maybe leave the full comforting piece to rosie, but it feels awful to offer nothing. yuuuuurrrriiii. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ Yuri gives a small, lopsided smile. ]
There hasn't been a record of him breaching yet, but--oh, excuse me.
[ Yuri will go back out into the main hall. ]
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[The girl is already going. Rosamund looks back to the dog. The blood dripping from its maw keeps pulling her in. How many died here?]
It's going to get worse, isn't it?
[So they need to follow.]
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[ so it's not about guessing what bad went down. or didn't go down. or would have gone down? squinting at the doorway yuri left through. ignoring the menacing puppy. ]
Yeah, let's stick together.
[ hurrying along to catch up ]
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But toward the floor is their eyes trail over a hand, a leg, and bodies. So many company employee bodies.
There they see Alex trembling among the dead. Yuri notices nothing wrong here What she sees is her company... Before the collapse. The normal vision of it sifts in like sand, trying to fight for dominance. ]
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--did Mike really have to fight over Ppodae with Eris again? They're both top dog lovers, so maybe their fight will actually go for a while... I'll brew you some coffee again. You probably have an overnight shift, don't you... Alex?
[ Nothing is wrong. ]
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Rosamund is no stranger to gore, but the haphazard limbs and far flung blood are enough to make even the hardiest soldier faint. She holds her hand to her heart as she surveys the damage. There's so many people.
There's Alex. There's Yuri, talking to them like nothing's wrong.
She darts over, gently taking her by the shoulder.]
Yuri. There was a breach. All right? You're not talking to anyone right now. Except us.
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She's right.
[ he follows in rosamund's shadow. ]
The people here were killed. You saw it.
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The voices that haunt her can disappear.
For Rosamund and Nodd, they see Alex... Wearing the head of an abnormality. There's a reason for this, why she's still alive while the rest are dead. Despite being reliable, being trustworthy, being kind—she... ]
The abnormality needs a sacrifice.
[ She looks to them three. ]
I won't let it be me.
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[ She could let it be this way forever. Even after being the sole survivor of this branch, she would be forever an outcast for something that she couldn't help. She wanted to live. She lived and she was punished for it.
Here, she could just live and experience none of that, despite the horrors of L Corp itself. She would rather face that than be reduced to nothing, to have her life not mean anything. She-- ]
Was it so wrong... for me to want to live...?
[ The end of the gun is pointed at Alex. ]
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[Rosamund looks between the two. Her immediate instinct is to get Yuri to lower the gun, which is followed at once by a second, crueler thought: she should shoot right away.]
No — no it wasn't wrong to want to live. But what happened here, Yuri? What really happened?
Did Alex set something loose?
[Or did she?]
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You know the truth, Yuri.
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More abnormalities are found amok. Razing this skeleton of a building. They screech and groan, attacking nearby survivors who are barely holding on, then when they finish with them... The fresh smell of blood mixes with the acrid tang already in the air.
The monsters start crawling to Nodd and Rosamund, launching sharp tendrils blindly at their direction. They are not the only thing approaching. Something large, something ominous, creating large footfalls as it approaches beyond the two girls.
The atrocities can end if you accept the truth. It can also end if you accept the lie. ]
THEN IT SHOULDN'T BE WRONG THAT I WANT TO LIVE!
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It was never wrong that Alex wanted to live, just like how it wasn't for Yuri.
But if Yuri had to choose, she would pick herself over her again and again.
Even if it was a temporary relief... that's all it'll ever be. The City is not so kind. She accepts the truth.
She screams and shoots Alex with the blaster. ]
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But Yuri isn't gun shy. Yuri's shaking loose of the illusion. She can see it all now, and the poor girl is a fountain of tears. Rosamund flinches as she takes her shot.
It wasn't wrong for either to live.]
Yuri!
[But call her selfish: one girl deserved it more than the other.]
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he turns his head when yuri screams. wordless. the pain must be so immense, to have to choose oneself and admit to it.
the candelabra gets chucked at the tombstone thing. a blind attack. his eyes remain on yuri. ]
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Rosamund uses her blaster to shoot and her aim strikes true, leaving a gnarly hole in one abnormality. It winds back its hooks and lines to let out a shrill shriek that knifes through the air, but it prepares its next attack. Its limbs spider out to anchor itself. For Nodd, his blind attack works on the tombstone... It's not as mobile as the other abnormalities, so it groans in pain and suffers pitifully. It does, however, try to reach out for him aflame, threatening to scald him. The path does open more thanks to his efforts.
... But they can see it's an infestation ahead.
Yuri, she shoots Alex. It would be comforting that she wore the clay headpiece, but the blaster is powerful. It turns her head into nothing in a millisecond with the pieces scattered and splattered. Remnants of her paint Rosamund, Nodd, and most of all Yuri crimson.
The blood painted across their faces, drenched into their clothes, it's warm. This is the will to survive.
Yuri has chosen her answer, but what about the other two? Do they believe they deserve to live? As this question enters their mind, the corpses splayed below them take the shape of people they know and love. Would they choose themselves...? The exit beyond opens to shine a bright light through the dust and dark. Is that wrong? They and Yuri can run. They can abandoned all these people to survive. They don't need to be sacrificed.
They hear—no, they sense these questions being asked of them. From where, they do not know. Perhaps it's from the nest of tragedy, this very manor. ]
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Into the light that they go. Yuri will not allow the other two to stay, even for a brief moment. ]
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It's not always cowardly to choose yourself.
She sees Timothy's body, crumpled and smaller than it should be. Ylfa next to him, her red cloak soaked, wolfen eyes glazed and gazing at nothing.
Then Yuri has her hand. Yuri pulls her though. It's not real, but even if it were?
There's roaring, snapping, the crackle of fire, the collapse of a building.
The dead can't be risen here. And the living should live.]
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deserving--why did he ever use that word? since when has he gotten what he deserved? it's down that hall. in those mouths--
but they're leaving. ]
Some other time.
[ he leaves with them, less of his preference for life but rather acceptance of yuri's. ]
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... I'm sorry for dragging you two into it and not being careful enough.
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Yuri, none of that was your fault. Okay? You didn't do anything to hurt us, and whatever happened before...that was bigger than any one person can take credit for.
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It isn't your fault--any of it, but especially not right now. We're in the storm-mansion.
[ he should maybe leave the full comforting piece to rosie, but it feels awful to offer nothing. yuuuuurrrriiii. ]
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