[ No one comments on Nodd's cute choice of celebratory feast. Myday however asks if he could have a puff, showing interest in Nodd instead of the girls who have been vying for his gaze. Of course not Rosamund and Yuri, though. They're just respectfully looking with no intentions at all. Anyway, Myday tells Nodd they wouldn't have gotten out of this without him. Thank you. He's grateful.
The look he gives him is not one a friend would give a friend. It's more than that.
...
But the scene does shift.
Both Rosamund and Yuri see many of the youths on the floor, eyes without light staring at nothing, and Nodd himself among them. They see him barely crawling as the ten mercenaries they slayed are alive and with some injuries. Myday is still alive, for some reason. The mercenaries beckon him over—they were here for him. Suddenly, all that happened earlier melts in their minds... It's painted over with the reality that likely everyone in the room was ruthlessly slaughtered.
This room which had smelled of pine and wine reeks of blood.
The pizza party returns though. The youths are back chatting, regaling what literally happened ten minutes ago. All is well. ]
[ this is more than perfect, it's all he's wanted for so long. since he left that awful house, since he abandoned the academy. since myday found him and said there was something a boy like nodd could do for him. his knuckles have been split from fisticuffs ever since. he killed and found he was good at the whole detaching part. a talent! at last.
and now he takes myday's hand, feeling confident.
he shuts his eyes, smiling.
once they'd disarmed him, those miserable opportunists, they'd kicked and smacked him around until he very well should have died there like the others. slower, though. from a punctured everything. he'd been too stupid to bleed out, though--
except none of that happened. they were so strong, it's so incredibly cool. so proud of the newbies. can't wait for tomorrow. ]
...Let's put a pin in the unicorns. [Cute! But she senses they are not relevant.
Especially once the scene does crack.
Much like the warehouse of Yuri's past, the happy folks become leaking bodies in the blink of an eye. Nodd is crawling, barely alive, and his handsome benefactor is walking willingly to the mercenaries.
[ Will Nodd come over to them? He could instead kiss Myday right now... It looks like he's open to it with the way he takes Nodd's hand, holding it with care. A calloused thumb gently brushes over any scars etched onto Nodd's knuckles. They're admired, accepted, and loved.
The visions flash... There are the dead—the rising smell of iron so thick it could coat their tongue when they take a breath. It isn't unfamiliar to the branch, is it? Sisters, we're neck deep in here. ]
a weariness enters nodd as he hears rosamund call him over. wouldn't it be nice to live in the delusion a while longer? to be loved by someone he'd do anything for--say the word?
his heart aches. for a while, simply beats and aches.
he's had many years to accept this loss. to grow past it. let go. be a better person.
but he doesn't want to. ]
You fucker.
[ and nodd spins myday around, locking his arm behind his back before smashing his pretty face into a table. charismatic bitch never knew shit about a real fight. nodd always let him win when they sparred. ]
You ruined everything!
[ is there a third option between fantasy and reality where he gives into rage and kills that beautiful piece of shit? ]
[Okay as much as she would have loved to stealth every single party goer out of here without Myday seeing (perhaps a conga line?), it looks very much like they're going to be putting out fires a different way.
Rosamund leaps from her seat to grab at his arms.]
Stop! Stop!
[And slips on a cream puff Nodd dropped.]
WAAAH!
[Her delicate legs toss high in the air like a pair of Popsicle sticks and she cracks down hard on a pure stone floor.]
[ Yuri was actually happy that Nodd and Myday seemed to have reciprocated feelings, but then this happens. This sucks, dude. The stench of blood is so familiar to Yuri that sometimes she wonders if she isn't bleeding from her nose at every single point in her life.
She's about to go help Rosamund, but she didn't expect her to trip and fall, so now she trips with a squeak and falls over Rosamund. With the blaster. It goes off and Myday's foot is now gone. ]
[ The reciprocated feelings were not real, womp womp. It does suck and the girls both trip together. Sisters suffer the horrors together, sisters fail together. One second, the two girls fall onto the floor, another second they're seated on the corpses of youths. They're still warm, freshly killed, and blood stains them further as a throne of tragedy and misery would.
The blaster goes off and despite how Myday is already being subjugated by Nodd, his foot becomes nothing much like Alex's head. He lets out an ugly scream, unbecoming of his handsome face. Maybe, instead, it's reflective of his true self...
Myday continues to writhe in pain, gasping like his life depends on it after losing a foot unceremoniously. It would be nice if this was something that did happen, wouldn't it? Take revenge. Make him hurt like he hurt you. Like he hurt everyone in this spot of warmth in Nodd's memories. But instead the fabric of reality shifts and Nodd will find himself on the floor, beaten just as he remembered, only for it to shift back to Myday below him pressed against the table bleeding profusely from the ankle.
Myday begs. It was all for fun... Didn't they have fun? ]
[ a lot happens as nodd holds myday down, all mercy learned over the last however many years vanished. this is that aggression para, his teacher, always told him needed to be accepted before it could be tamed. but how?
he squeezes his other hand around the traitor's throat. myday's howling--so what? you lost a foot? what did nodd lose that day?--quiets. nodd breathes in, breathes out.
rosamund and yuri have fallen over. it is up to an internal sense of self to help nodd choose the right path.
they are all, perhaps, fucked.
he's on the ground, gasping, in so much pain. this isn't like the hazing at school. nothing like mother's treatment. nothing like the fights he'd thrown himself into before, even those that had a deadly outcome. but he wants to run and if it's impossible, he should crawl.
back on his feet, myday bent over (ironic?).
nodd returns to his breathing again. ]
... No offense, ladies, but you're kind of taking me out of the moment.
[Maybe it's fate. They all needed to be on the floor.
Rosamund groans and scoots, gently extricating herself from under Yuri.]
We really killed the mood, didn't we?
[Oh, Nodd. Sweet, passionate Nodd, left to crawl on his belly by the man he pledged his life to. When she's able, Rosamund reaches a hand towards his, twining their fingers together.]
[ ... The memory is as it is, as it should be. Myday losing his foot never happened and the wine cellar returns to vision. Nod, Yuri, and Rosamund are back in the manor now with their clothes stained with blood from this door and the last and likely a bruise from tripping.
There's just silence in this old abandoned basement, but at least they have each other. Everyone can take this time to tag amongst themselves, lick wounds, and take a breather. ]
[ they are group hand-holding while standing now, which means they kind of resemble a sports team about to take the field. all hands in, or something.
nodd cracks a smile and that truly is the verb for it. he's struggling to find humor. chill. he accepted his memory by echolocating through off-putting vibes. the remnants hang around. tatters of bad choices. ]
[ his taste truly didn't evolve in the last ~40 years but yuri is so cute he ain't saying shit. there is the ship chart to consider. ]
You never know.
[ whatever!!! he likes these two, he will pull them in for a big shoulder scrunching hug. he hasn't forgotten yuri's suffering in her decimated office branch. and rosie's surely up next. ]
Rosamund returns it fiercely, if a bit cautiously. Better not scratch up her lovely friends, so her hips angle out and she's careful not to dip her head too close to either.]
I'm so glad to have you two here. No matter what happened before, we have each other now.
[They can face whatever comes next. Oh, speaking of which, she lifts out of the hug for a moment to address them properly.]
By the way, if we're all seeing things that went horribly wrong, I'm pretty sure I know what's coming up for me. And please, don't hesitate to step in and shake me out of it!
It may look terrible and everyone may have died, but it all worked out fine in the end. So it's all okay!
[ It was so terrible for her and Nodd. She can't imagine just how bad Rosamund's would be too. But it's because of that, Yuri wants to try hard to respect her wishes to shake her out of it in the future. ]
... If you say so. I'll do my best.
[ The hug is nice though, and to have this sort of three-way hug... was something that she never had before. It's warm. She closes her eye.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ She leans in to whisper to Rosamund. ]
I think I saw bodies. Bodies everywhere. Bodies as far as the eye--oh, I have two eyes now. So, yes. Eyes can see.
... But I also saw pink, fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows, so.
[ Anyway, she likes bibimbap the best. ]
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The look he gives him is not one a friend would give a friend. It's more than that.
...
But the scene does shift.
Both Rosamund and Yuri see many of the youths on the floor, eyes without light staring at nothing, and Nodd himself among them. They see him barely crawling as the ten mercenaries they slayed are alive and with some injuries. Myday is still alive, for some reason. The mercenaries beckon him over—they were here for him. Suddenly, all that happened earlier melts in their minds... It's painted over with the reality that likely everyone in the room was ruthlessly slaughtered.
This room which had smelled of pine and wine reeks of blood.
The pizza party returns though. The youths are back chatting, regaling what literally happened ten minutes ago. All is well. ]
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and now he takes myday's hand, feeling confident.
he shuts his eyes, smiling.
once they'd disarmed him, those miserable opportunists, they'd kicked and smacked him around until he very well should have died there like the others. slower, though. from a punctured everything. he'd been too stupid to bleed out, though--
except none of that happened. they were so strong, it's so incredibly cool. so proud of the newbies. can't wait for tomorrow. ]
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Especially once the scene does crack.
Much like the warehouse of Yuri's past, the happy folks become leaking bodies in the blink of an eye. Nodd is crawling, barely alive, and his handsome benefactor is walking willingly to the mercenaries.
Then it's gone. She tugs on Yuri's sleeve anew.]
You saw that too, right?
[Then she turns, calling out.]
Nodd? Come here for a moment!
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... Okay, most of her senses.
But before Nodd reaches them, she manages to whisper to Rosamund. ]
Let's take everyone here... and put them somewhere else... when Myday isn't looking.
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The visions flash... There are the dead—the rising smell of iron so thick it could coat their tongue when they take a breath. It isn't unfamiliar to the branch, is it? Sisters, we're neck deep in here. ]
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a weariness enters nodd as he hears rosamund call him over. wouldn't it be nice to live in the delusion a while longer? to be loved by someone he'd do anything for--say the word?
his heart aches. for a while, simply beats and aches.
he's had many years to accept this loss. to grow past it. let go. be a better person.
but he doesn't want to. ]
You fucker.
[ and nodd spins myday around, locking his arm behind his back before smashing his pretty face into a table. charismatic bitch never knew shit about a real fight. nodd always let him win when they sparred. ]
You ruined everything!
[ is there a third option between fantasy and reality where he gives into rage and kills that beautiful piece of shit? ]
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Nodd!
[Okay as much as she would have loved to stealth every single party goer out of here without Myday seeing (perhaps a conga line?), it looks very much like they're going to be putting out fires a different way.
Rosamund leaps from her seat to grab at his arms.]
Stop! Stop!
[And slips on a cream puff Nodd dropped.]
WAAAH!
[Her delicate legs toss high in the air like a pair of Popsicle sticks and she cracks down hard on a pure stone floor.]
Aaaahhaaaaaaaaah...
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She's about to go help Rosamund, but she didn't expect her to trip and fall, so now she trips with a squeak and falls over Rosamund. With the blaster. It goes off and Myday's foot is now gone. ]
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The blaster goes off and despite how Myday is already being subjugated by Nodd, his foot becomes nothing much like Alex's head. He lets out an ugly scream, unbecoming of his handsome face. Maybe, instead, it's reflective of his true self...
Myday continues to writhe in pain, gasping like his life depends on it after losing a foot unceremoniously. It would be nice if this was something that did happen, wouldn't it? Take revenge. Make him hurt like he hurt you. Like he hurt everyone in this spot of warmth in Nodd's memories. But instead the fabric of reality shifts and Nodd will find himself on the floor, beaten just as he remembered, only for it to shift back to Myday below him pressed against the table bleeding profusely from the ankle.
Myday begs. It was all for fun... Didn't they have fun? ]
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he squeezes his other hand around the traitor's throat. myday's howling--so what? you lost a foot? what did nodd lose that day?--quiets. nodd breathes in, breathes out.
rosamund and yuri have fallen over. it is up to an internal sense of self to help nodd choose the right path.
they are all, perhaps, fucked.
he's on the ground, gasping, in so much pain. this isn't like the hazing at school. nothing like mother's treatment. nothing like the fights he'd thrown himself into before, even those that had a deadly outcome. but he wants to run and if it's impossible, he should crawl.
back on his feet, myday bent over (ironic?).
nodd returns to his breathing again. ]
... No offense, ladies, but you're kind of taking me out of the moment.
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Rosamund groans and scoots, gently extricating herself from under Yuri.]
We really killed the mood, didn't we?
[Oh, Nodd. Sweet, passionate Nodd, left to crawl on his belly by the man he pledged his life to. When she's able, Rosamund reaches a hand towards his, twining their fingers together.]
He doesn't deserve you. Not one bit.
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That's good, because... losing yourself to anger is bad. So taking you out of the moment is a good thing. Rosamund and I... did well.
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There's just silence in this old abandoned basement, but at least they have each other. Everyone can take this time to tag amongst themselves, lick wounds, and take a breather. ]
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nodd cracks a smile and that truly is the verb for it. he's struggling to find humor. chill. he accepted his memory by echolocating through off-putting vibes. the remnants hang around. tatters of bad choices. ]
Learn from this, kids. Men are never worth it.
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[ Yuri smiles too. ]
So I think that you'll find a good man too, Nodd. It doesn't have to be now or soon... but I think you'll find a good one.
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there is the ship chart to consider.]You never know.
[ whatever!!! he likes these two, he will pull them in for a big shoulder scrunching hug. he hasn't forgotten yuri's suffering in her decimated office branch. and rosie's surely up next. ]
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Rosamund returns it fiercely, if a bit cautiously. Better not scratch up her lovely friends, so her hips angle out and she's careful not to dip her head too close to either.]
I'm so glad to have you two here. No matter what happened before, we have each other now.
[They can face whatever comes next. Oh, speaking of which, she lifts out of the hug for a moment to address them properly.]
By the way, if we're all seeing things that went horribly wrong, I'm pretty sure I know what's coming up for me. And please, don't hesitate to step in and shake me out of it!
It may look terrible and everyone may have died, but it all worked out fine in the end. So it's all okay!
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... If you say so. I'll do my best.
[ The hug is nice though, and to have this sort of three-way hug... was something that she never had before. It's warm. She closes her eye.
It's nice. ]
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