[ manyue appreciates the help, settling against shouxue and trembling. she's exhausted, and the darkness is getting to her. it's cold. but - sure, yeah, she can take the grape. she eats it with a sort of :nyeh: look but she looks like she feels a little bit better after.
the lanterns are close by - they fell to the ground during the scuffle. the light inside them flickers violently, the way that a flame does when confronted with harsh winds. they provide a little bit of warmth once you grab for them, but...
once you pick them up, it's strange. it's just... the darkness persists. you still feel uneasy. is there a way out? will you be stuck here forever? what if the only way out is...
well. how can you be so sure the girl in front of you isn't a traitor? ]
suddenly filled with that uneasy feeling, the though buzzing around her brain, harley clutches the lantern a little closer to her chest. if shouxue is truly a traitor...
well, she's just a kid. harley can deal with it. she's been stabbed in the back in the past, over and over again. it's not her first rodeo. it probably won't even be her last. it's fine. it'll be fine. this is nothing new.
she plasters a smile on her face, just a little sweaty.]
L-Let's keep goin'. Mama wants to a take a nice, long shower, and I won't be able to do that if we stick around to watch these bones turn to dust.
[ don't just let yourself get stabbed in the back, harley.
she picks the lantern up and frowns as the uneasiness grows within her. she hugs manyue closer to her and looks over at harely before holding her lantern up.
is there any sign of a path anywhere? ]
You'll have to pick a direction. Manyue isn't able to fly for a while.
[ it might be safer to watch harley from behind. it's a terrible thing to think, but she can't help but think it... ]
gathering your lanterns together helps - though you step a little apart from each other, shouxue walking behind. even still, it makes the crushing darkness feel a tiny, tiny bit less.
however. as you right yourselves, you realize that the purple fog from before has gotten worse. maybe it seeped in from the creature, or maybe it didn't - but what was at your knees is now up to your chests, and it feels thick and heavy. oppressive. it stings where it touches any open injuries you have, but at least it doesn't make your fun new purple magic burns any worse? thank gods for that. the fog itself is cloying and uncomfortable, the ground still wet and now full of monster sludge (sorry) but you find yourself still moving onwards. by now you can't really see the trees, and the oppressive, heavy silence remains. it's just you and your thoughts.
harley. what's another betrayal, right? whats another abandonment? just for a minute, the three of you were a family. a fucked up, awful family, but a family nonetheless. your collar feels tight. she probably won't attack you, she's just a kid, she was your family. but isn't that what your family does, harley? don't they just - stab each other in the back?
for shouxue, manyue shivers as she burrows closer to you, desperately trying to stay warm and keep you warm, too. your eyes are still stinging, but at least you can see. you think.
a shadow flickers in the corner of your vision. it swirls, briefly - a void - and then it disappears again, skittering away. like it might take you over, because are you even you?
the world is so full of despair. do you want to live or not, shouxue? do you want to keep walking forward? ]
[thank god the fog doesn't make the magic burns worse because, whew. that's her whole ass leg in there. the combination of mud and monster sludge feels terrible and she's regretting her A S S I M I L A T E D fashion choices so much right now, but there's nothing she can do about it.
perhaps foolishly, she stays one step ahead of shouxue while rubbing a hand against her neck, keenly aware of the sensation of the collar against her skin. almost impossibly, it feels even more oppressive now than when she first started wearing it years (a whole spanking couple of hours?) ago in a life that didn't quite belong to her — but at least that version of her wasn't saddled with the worst family on earth. just thinking about it sours her mood even further. the skin surrounding the long since healed gunshot wound on her stomach, puckered and scarred over by how many years it's been since then, feels painfully tight.
trucking forward, she's too lost in her thoughts to notice if shouxue starts to lag behind.]
[ shouxue keeps walking on. Even if the fog is oppressive and uncomfortable, even if her eyes continue to sting.
The shadow makes her stop in her tracks for a moment, but seeing harley walking ahead spurs her on.
The image of her mother dying, illusion or not, leaves her empty. Head empty, heart empty, and she can hardly remember anything else. Not the family she did or didn't have, not the care she's been given to fill the hole that's been left by her mother's death.
It's the feel of feathers against her cheek that slowly brings her back, reminds her of the warmth of people who didn't want to leave alone, of the things she still has to do whether she wants to live or not.
this world is miserable. it is full of darkness and despair. all it ever does is take - it takes away from you. it wants to destroy you. it wants you to stop being you, to give up your life and body to someone else, because you don't matter. how unfair is that? how cruel is that?
as you stare at harley's back, the feathers soft against your cheek, your light in your lantern flickers and wavers. the more you stare at her, the more you can feel it. she's going to kill you. why would she help you? she just wants the goddess, too. every jingle of her clothing is starting to feel grating.
harley. i dont know if i would say the blacksnakes are better than your family but boy if they are i am so sorry. at any rate - that sour mood lingers as you walk forward. the purple fog continues to press around you both, rising so thick you can almost taste it in your mouth. rot, death, misery. why do you deserve to live, harley? do you want to live? you don't want to be like your parents. the girl behind you is so young, just barely a kid, and she has her whole life ahead of her, and maybe - maybe you can stop her, harley, before she turns out like them. she's so young. mother and father's influence has turned her into a blacksnake - no - into - no -
your light flickers. the air smells like blood; the silence is getting worse. there's nothing up ahead but blank, purple fog.
That girl is out to kill you. a voice whispers. you both hear it. neither of you know who its for. ]
[looks at her tv show canon parents and laughs. well. at least the blacksnakes were upfront about the poison. :)
the lying. the cheating. the stealing. breaking every promise they've ever made and then making new ones, swearing up and down that this time will be different. that we love you, sweetheart. it's just that we can't love you unconditionally. it's just that there are other priorities. it's just that we hate every single choice you've made and would rather see you dead.
thinking about it leaves a sour taste in her mouth. maybe it's already too late for her. ivy said she was unreliable. impulsive. she already betrayed everyone's trust once. would barry have turned out like mother and father if he lived past his teens? is that what's waiting for shouxue, too? it's all she can think about now.
then the voice whispers, and she stops in her tracks, startled out of her thoughts. her feet sink into the disgusting mud with a squelch.]
[ the world has always been unfair. That isn't something new to her. There haven't been very many hands that reached out to help her until recently, so harley not wanting to also isn't new. What is new is knowing about niao lian. What isn't new is another person wanting her dead because she's the raven consort.
It is another attempt on her life, but is it a life if she has already died? Why is this all so tiresome?
The voice whispers, and she snaps. ]
If you are to make an attempt, do not waste any more time.
it's all you can think about, the way the other girl is staring at you. you know the end is coming. it has to, for one of you. someone has always told you to be something entirely different than who you wanted to be. you never had any choice. you're losing yourself. to the goddess, to the joker, to things that don't care for you as you. it's all what you can do for them. and when they're done, what are you left with?
you're just an empty husk. you're whatever they couldn't be bothered to finish.
aren't you tired of that? don't you want to be free?
(a few months ago, you heard about the best in the nest, , and how she killed so many people to get to the top. but she's free, now. you've seen her without the collar. she killed pirro, she killed scaracci, she killed donnie.
you could do that too. you could start with the woman in front of you.)]
[she turns to look at her, brows knitted together and somehow, even paler than before. slowly, she raises her hands, palms forward. no weapons. trying to put her mind at ease.]
I'm not— It's not like that.
[but isn't it? the thought has wormed its way into her head and it's getting more and more difficult to ignore it. sure, it's been a long time since she considered herself a villain. shouxue is just a child, no older than her own little brother before he... well. but it's not like she hasn't committed atrocities before. some in the name of love. others in the name of showing the world that she was just as smart, just as capable, just as self-sufficient as everyone else in the game.
[ shouxue has been tired a long time. Her existence is tiresome, and freedom often comes at a price. She has long accepted the chains of her role because otherwise, freedom equates to death.
But if freedom meant blood on her hands, hasn't she already stained them red? Isn't she already undeserving of paradise?
(The kind words people spoke to her fade from her mind.) ]
her leg crumples beneath her and she loudly curses—]
—God-fucking-dammit, Shouxue!
[then she uses one of her spells, trying to smack her back with a gust of wind, picking up mud and monster muck and all that nasty shit in the process as harley forces herself back on her feet. she promptly rushes at her, dagger drawn, slashing if she manages to get close enough.]
[ the wind hits her (almost like deja vu), and she's pushed back by all that muck and slime and grime. she grimaces as it sticks to her skin and slows her down.
she can't keep the most stable stance on the ground, but she steps back as much as she can. she fires off another arrow right as harley rushes at her, and the wind picks it up and redirects it enough to launch at harley's eye (because i rolled an 18).
it's not where she was aiming, but it'll do. she grits her teeth for what may come next. ]
[HARLEY IS REALLY OUT HERE JUST GETTING FUCKED UP which, honestly... is fair. her heart isn't fully in the fight. not really. there's no thrill of the battle here. only a bone deep weariness and a sense of resignation. like ripping off a bandaid, except the bandaid is a teenage girl.
the gust of wind redirects the path of shouxue's arrow. with harley leaping at the other girl, there's go good way for her to move out of the way while she's mid air.
the arrow finds its unintended target, lodging itself in harley's right eye. she screams.
but this does not stop her from kicking out with her legs as she lands, trying to knock shouxue to the ground and potentially stomping down on her. with the sudden blinding pain from the loss of her eye, she can't exactly control her strength or the force of her landing — and shouxue might find herself with some broken bones if she doesn't move out of the way fast.]
[ she can't and won't call for manyue because of how mucked up she was earlier. no, she doesn't want to fight harley with her raven. it doesn't feel right.
they're both exhausted and want this over with, but there is only way for that to happen, isn't there?
she goes down, and pain shoots up her foot, as harley lands a stomp on her foot. the bone cracks, her vision blurs even more because of the break. she bites through her lip to keep from yelling and in between labored breaths, she hisses: ]
Finish it, Harley.
[ she grabs an arrow and stabs it wherever she can make it land. ]
[there's blood drip, drip, dripping down on shouxue from where harley stands over her, hunched over and digging the heel of her foot into the broken leg. her own vision is... not great. blurry. a little bit of blood and muck getting into her remaining eye. she has a white knuckled grip on her dagger.
and then shouxue takes an arrow and stabs it into harley's knee.
she goes down, crumpling over shouxue — but no matter. she'll crawl through the mud if she has to. she will. she will. she'll drag herself up. she grabs shouxue by the the collar and presses the dagger to her throat, perhaps even enough to draw blood. one swipe, and this can be over. one swipe, and... and...]
... No.
[she stabs the dagger down, to the side. maybe pinning shouxue's hand down with it, if ara would like a little extra treat.]
[ can you imagine if i let you get slorped by slime.
harley, you feel it first. you feel this warm sensation in your chest - it's unfamiliar, but it's not bad, and shouxue, yours comes too. above your heads, in the darkness... light breaks through the clouds. it's dappling and thin, but it's there.
... that's right, isn't it?
shouxue, harley. why would you want to kill each other? this is some kind of illusion. it's some kind of falsehood, something twisted and warped by the darkness that you found yourselves in. harley, with your refusal, whatever it was that trapped you in this place breaks.
you find yourselves enveloped in something - feathers. manyue curls up against shouxue's neck, burrowing in close, and the soft, downy feeling of being held, protected, and safe has you both closing your eyes...
--
... and when you wake again, you find yourselves in a temple. it's dark, pitch dark, but you immediately feel like you're safe, at least for now. i won't spare you too many details here, but the air is thick and warm and humid, and you can hear nightbirds and the ocean in the distance. it's silent and dark, but no longer oppressive.
but more importantly, you can see a short set of stairs just up ahead, lit only by the glow of your lanterns, and something very, very important that lies beyond them.
you know you need to move. perhaps you want to apologize to each other, now that the fog of horror and paranoia has lifted.
[ she's alive. why? what is this? why did it have to go like this?
she should apologize. it would be the right thing to do, the better thing to do, but she is too injured and exhausted, physically and existentially. blood drips from the wound in the hand, and she hobbles on a broken foot. they have to move, don't they?
she doesn't need an apology either. ]
... Let's go.
[ she checks to see if manyue is with her before she limps her way up, trying not to hiss every time she takes a step. ]
[she wishes she could say all's well that ends well, but... it's not over yet, is it?
wiping the blood from her face with the back of her hand, the only thing keeping her from collapsing again is her sheer bullheaded stubbornness. the arrow is still sticking out of her face. there are two more embedded in her leg as well. blood trails down her face and leg in rivulets. but even like this, she still holds out an arm to shouxue.]
... Come on, kid. We have two legs between the two of us.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
can she give manyue the grape she has? maybe harley needs it more, but she is prioritizing her bird. (sorry, harley.) ]
This darkness... I don't know. I'll look.
[ slowly, since it is harder to breathe after being magically puked on. she looks for any speck of light or sign of the lanterns.
where are their lanterns? ]
no subject
the lanterns are close by - they fell to the ground during the scuffle. the light inside them flickers violently, the way that a flame does when confronted with harsh winds. they provide a little bit of warmth once you grab for them, but...
once you pick them up, it's strange. it's just... the darkness persists. you still feel uneasy. is there a way out? will you be stuck here forever? what if the only way out is...
well. how can you be so sure the girl in front of you isn't a traitor? ]
no subject
suddenly filled with that uneasy feeling, the though buzzing around her brain, harley clutches the lantern a little closer to her chest. if shouxue is truly a traitor...
well, she's just a kid. harley can deal with it. she's been stabbed in the back in the past, over and over again. it's not her first rodeo. it probably won't even be her last. it's fine. it'll be fine. this is nothing new.
she plasters a smile on her face, just a little sweaty.]
L-Let's keep goin'. Mama wants to a take a nice, long shower, and I won't be able to do that if we stick around to watch these bones turn to dust.
no subject
she picks the lantern up and frowns as the uneasiness grows within her. she hugs manyue closer to her and looks over at harely before holding her lantern up.
is there any sign of a path anywhere? ]
You'll have to pick a direction. Manyue isn't able to fly for a while.
[ it might be safer to watch harley from behind. it's a terrible thing to think, but she can't help but think it... ]
no subject
gathering your lanterns together helps - though you step a little apart from each other, shouxue walking behind. even still, it makes the crushing darkness feel a tiny, tiny bit less.
however. as you right yourselves, you realize that the purple fog from before has gotten worse. maybe it seeped in from the creature, or maybe it didn't - but what was at your knees is now up to your chests, and it feels thick and heavy. oppressive. it stings where it touches any open injuries you have, but at least it doesn't make your fun new purple magic burns any worse? thank gods for that. the fog itself is cloying and uncomfortable, the ground still wet and now full of monster sludge (sorry) but you find yourself still moving onwards. by now you can't really see the trees, and the oppressive, heavy silence remains. it's just you and your thoughts.
harley. what's another betrayal, right? whats another abandonment? just for a minute, the three of you were a family. a fucked up, awful family, but a family nonetheless. your collar feels tight. she probably won't attack you, she's just a kid, she was your family. but isn't that what your family does, harley? don't they just - stab each other in the back?
for shouxue, manyue shivers as she burrows closer to you, desperately trying to stay warm and keep you warm, too. your eyes are still stinging, but at least you can see. you think.
a shadow flickers in the corner of your vision. it swirls, briefly - a void - and then it disappears again, skittering away. like it might take you over, because are you even you?
the world is so full of despair. do you want to live or not, shouxue? do you want to keep walking forward? ]
no subject
perhaps foolishly, she stays one step ahead of shouxue while rubbing a hand against her neck, keenly aware of the sensation of the collar against her skin. almost impossibly, it feels even more oppressive now than when she first started wearing it years (a whole spanking couple of hours?) ago in a life that didn't quite belong to her — but at least that version of her wasn't saddled with the worst family on earth. just thinking about it sours her mood even further. the skin surrounding the long since healed gunshot wound on her stomach, puckered and scarred over by how many years it's been since then, feels painfully tight.
trucking forward, she's too lost in her thoughts to notice if shouxue starts to lag behind.]
no subject
The shadow makes her stop in her tracks for a moment, but seeing harley walking ahead spurs her on.
The image of her mother dying, illusion or not, leaves her empty. Head empty, heart empty, and she can hardly remember anything else. Not the family she did or didn't have, not the care she's been given to fill the hole that's been left by her mother's death.
It's the feel of feathers against her cheek that slowly brings her back, reminds her of the warmth of people who didn't want to leave alone, of the things she still has to do whether she wants to live or not.
She keeps walking forward. ]
no subject
this world is miserable. it is full of darkness and despair. all it ever does is take - it takes away from you. it wants to destroy you. it wants you to stop being you, to give up your life and body to someone else, because you don't matter. how unfair is that? how cruel is that?
as you stare at harley's back, the feathers soft against your cheek, your light in your lantern flickers and wavers. the more you stare at her, the more you can feel it. she's going to kill you. why would she help you? she just wants the goddess, too. every jingle of her clothing is starting to feel grating.
harley. i dont know if i would say the blacksnakes are better than your family but boy if they are i am so sorry. at any rate - that sour mood lingers as you walk forward. the purple fog continues to press around you both, rising so thick you can almost taste it in your mouth. rot, death, misery. why do you deserve to live, harley? do you want to live? you don't want to be like your parents. the girl behind you is so young, just barely a kid, and she has her whole life ahead of her, and maybe - maybe you can stop her, harley, before she turns out like them. she's so young. mother and father's influence has turned her into a blacksnake - no - into - no -
your light flickers. the air smells like blood; the silence is getting worse. there's nothing up ahead but blank, purple fog.
That girl is out to kill you. a voice whispers. you both hear it. neither of you know who its for. ]
no subject
the lying. the cheating. the stealing. breaking every promise they've ever made and then making new ones, swearing up and down that this time will be different. that we love you, sweetheart. it's just that we can't love you unconditionally. it's just that there are other priorities. it's just that we hate every single choice you've made and would rather see you dead.
thinking about it leaves a sour taste in her mouth. maybe it's already too late for her. ivy said she was unreliable. impulsive. she already betrayed everyone's trust once. would barry have turned out like mother and father if he lived past his teens? is that what's waiting for shouxue, too? it's all she can think about now.
then the voice whispers, and she stops in her tracks, startled out of her thoughts. her feet sink into the disgusting mud with a squelch.]
—What?
no subject
It is another attempt on her life, but is it a life if she has already died? Why is this all so tiresome?
The voice whispers, and she snaps. ]
If you are to make an attempt, do not waste any more time.
no subject
it's all you can think about, the way the other girl is staring at you. you know the end is coming. it has to, for one of you. someone has always told you to be something entirely different than who you wanted to be. you never had any choice. you're losing yourself. to the goddess, to the joker, to things that don't care for you as you. it's all what you can do for them. and when they're done, what are you left with?
you're just an empty husk. you're whatever they couldn't be bothered to finish.
aren't you tired of that? don't you want to be free?
(a few months ago, you heard about the best in the nest,
you could do that too. you could start with the woman in front of you.)]
no subject
[she turns to look at her, brows knitted together and somehow, even paler than before. slowly, she raises her hands, palms forward. no weapons. trying to put her mind at ease.]
I'm not— It's not like that.
[but isn't it? the thought has wormed its way into her head and it's getting more and more difficult to ignore it. sure, it's been a long time since she considered herself a villain. shouxue is just a child, no older than her own little brother before he... well. but it's not like she hasn't committed atrocities before. some in the name of love. others in the name of showing the world that she was just as smart, just as capable, just as self-sufficient as everyone else in the game.
what's one more atrocity in the name of freedom?]
no subject
But if freedom meant blood on her hands, hasn't she already stained them red? Isn't she already undeserving of paradise?
(The kind words people spoke to her fade from her mind.) ]
Isn't it? Stop lying to me. Get it over with.
no subject
[but she's thinking it, isn't she? shouxue's just a kid. she wouldn't be the first one harley has gotten killed, surely...
it wouldn't even be hard.]
But if you're so obsessed us fighting, maybe you're the one thinkin' about it. Well, what's it gonna be kid?
no subject
she notches her bow and looses an arrow at harley's injured leg. ]
no subject
her leg crumples beneath her and she loudly curses—]
—God-fucking-dammit, Shouxue!
[then she uses one of her spells, trying to smack her back with a gust of wind, picking up mud and monster muck and all that nasty shit in the process as harley forces herself back on her feet. she promptly rushes at her, dagger drawn, slashing if she manages to get close enough.]
no subject
she can't keep the most stable stance on the ground, but she steps back as much as she can. she fires off another arrow right as harley rushes at her, and the wind picks it up and redirects it enough to launch at harley's eye (because i rolled an 18).
it's not where she was aiming, but it'll do. she grits her teeth for what may come next. ]
cw: eye gore
the gust of wind redirects the path of shouxue's arrow. with harley leaping at the other girl, there's go good way for her to move out of the way while she's mid air.
the arrow finds its unintended target, lodging itself in harley's right eye. she screams.
but this does not stop her from kicking out with her legs as she lands, trying to knock shouxue to the ground and potentially stomping down on her. with the sudden blinding pain from the loss of her eye, she can't exactly control her strength or the force of her landing — and shouxue might find herself with some broken bones if she doesn't move out of the way fast.]
no subject
they're both exhausted and want this over with, but there is only way for that to happen, isn't there?
she goes down, and pain shoots up her foot, as harley lands a stomp on her foot. the bone cracks, her vision blurs even more because of the break. she bites through her lip to keep from yelling and in between labored breaths, she hisses: ]
Finish it, Harley.
[ she grabs an arrow and stabs it wherever she can make it land. ]
no subject
and then shouxue takes an arrow and stabs it into harley's knee.
she goes down, crumpling over shouxue — but no matter. she'll crawl through the mud if she has to. she will. she will. she'll drag herself up. she grabs shouxue by the the collar and presses the dagger to her throat, perhaps even enough to draw blood. one swipe, and this can be over. one swipe, and... and...]
... No.
[she stabs the dagger down, to the side. maybe pinning shouxue's hand down with it, if ara would like a little extra treat.]
Fuck off, kid. I'm done.
no subject
the dagger goes through her hand, and she cries out again in pain, falls over, and lays there.
maybe if she lets the slime and sludge take her, she can rest that way. she's done, too. ]
no subject
she just. takes in a deep breath, heaving.
and rolls over to lay on the ground, too.]
no subject
harley, you feel it first. you feel this warm sensation in your chest - it's unfamiliar, but it's not bad, and shouxue, yours comes too. above your heads, in the darkness... light breaks through the clouds. it's dappling and thin, but it's there.
... that's right, isn't it?
shouxue, harley. why would you want to kill each other? this is some kind of illusion. it's some kind of falsehood, something twisted and warped by the darkness that you found yourselves in. harley, with your refusal, whatever it was that trapped you in this place breaks.
you find yourselves enveloped in something - feathers. manyue curls up against shouxue's neck, burrowing in close, and the soft, downy feeling of being held, protected, and safe has you both closing your eyes...
--
... and when you wake again, you find yourselves in a temple. it's dark, pitch dark, but you immediately feel like you're safe, at least for now. i won't spare you too many details here, but the air is thick and warm and humid, and you can hear nightbirds and the ocean in the distance. it's silent and dark, but no longer oppressive.
but more importantly, you can see a short set of stairs just up ahead, lit only by the glow of your lanterns, and something very, very important that lies beyond them.
you know you need to move. perhaps you want to apologize to each other, now that the fog of horror and paranoia has lifted.
you're both alive. ]
no subject
she should apologize. it would be the right thing to do, the better thing to do, but she is too injured and exhausted, physically and existentially. blood drips from the wound in the hand, and she hobbles on a broken foot. they have to move, don't they?
she doesn't need an apology either. ]
... Let's go.
[ she checks to see if manyue is with her before she limps her way up, trying not to hiss every time she takes a step. ]
no subject
wiping the blood from her face with the back of her hand, the only thing keeping her from collapsing again is her sheer bullheaded stubbornness. the arrow is still sticking out of her face. there are two more embedded in her leg as well. blood trails down her face and leg in rivulets. but even like this, she still holds out an arm to shouxue.]
... Come on, kid. We have two legs between the two of us.
[might as well limp up those stairs together.]
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