HE SETS HIS SIGN IN THE SKY | JUNE CATCH-ALL

[the_obedient_servant]

Who: Chara + CR, both old and new.
What: Chara reveals some memories, fights their repressed conscience in their dreams, is one haunted ghost and goes spelunking. Plus other stuff!
When: Around the month of June.
Where: All over.

Comments

[danserai]

[ ahiru is silent for a bit. ]

But you wanted to be one. Once.

[the_obedient_servant]

We all grow up eventually.

I found a new purpose.

[danserai]

[ she nods slowly. ]

And now?

[the_obedient_servant]

And now... [They trace their fingers around the locket around their neck. It's shaped like a heart. It used to say BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.

Now it doesn't say anything at all.]

I am become death. The destroyer of worlds.

Sorry. Not the answer you're hoping for, I imagine.

[danserai]

I mean . . . I'm not really asking for me.

[ chara's answers are their own. ahiru can't really demand or ask of it. and this seems like a long time ago. it doesn't quite . . . fit, no matter what chara says. ]

Do you feel that bad?

[the_obedient_servant]

[The memory is from only about... three or so hours before they arrived in Trench. They think. It feels longer. They don't know how long they were in the void.]

No. I don't revel in the suffering I caused, but I don't feel bad either.

Regrets are for the living. I've been dead for a long time.

[danserai]

[ oh. that seems much sadder. a bit like drosselmeyer, going through the motions of what was and what is. ]

. . . I'm sorry. I don't really understand it, but it seems painful.

[the_obedient_servant]

...Do you remember how I said I had no frame of reference for the difference between a story and a world?

[danserai]

Uhm yeah . . . I remember.

cw for fourth wall breaking, unreality

[the_obedient_servant]

[They let out a deep breath. This is a lot to put on poor Ahiru, and they recognize that, but they want to try their best to explain. They owe her that much, as her friend.]

That's all my world is. A story. A game, specifically.

And after I died in the midst of making a pitiful attempt at being a so-called "hero"... my soul was dormant for a long time. It felt like centuries, but time has a funny way of working in the Underground, and I know that time repeated again and again as my brother toyed with the world to his own heart's content. I only woke up to be a component in the game. But we all were. Every person in that world existed only to be toyed with and then killed and brought back again.

I just happened to be the only one aware of it all. [In their twisted mind, they even saw the complete eradication of their world a mercy in the face of being an endless loop of tragedy, then comedy, then tragedy once again.]

[danserai]

[ thankfully, ahiru knows a little of stories and their nature to follow along. it's one of the few things she is somewhat adept with, having being toyed and used for drosselmeyer's pleasure. ]

So someone put you in the game and you were controlled by them. And you kept seeing it over and over . . . That's awful.

[the_obedient_servant]

...Mm. [There's a look in their eye like they think that's not quite it, but it gets the spirit across. They think it's a bit too kind to them to say they were controlled (they were), but they're not going to tell Ahiru of all people to condemn them.

They have a feeling it'd be pretty pointless.]

Although. I wasn't put inside a game. It was always a game. I simply only realized it after I died.

None of it matters anymore. Even if I wanted to go back to my world - to that game, it's impossible for me to return. I would much prefer to move forward. [No matter how high the cost may grow.]

[danserai]

[ she nods slowly. ]

Do you know where you want to go?

[the_obedient_servant]

Wherever I end up when Trench collapses into dust and corruption.

I don't have a destination in mind for that. But I know none of us can stay here indefinitely.

[danserai]

Yeah, I'd probably go back to Gold Crown Town.

[the_obedient_servant]

Your town, I assume?

Do you want to go back there sooner rather than later?

[danserai]

. . . I don't know. I have things I need to do. I don't want to run away from that.

And it feels selfish sometimes.

[the_obedient_servant]

We spoke about this before.

But I understand. There was a time when I felt that way as well. Tied down by obligation and debts I had to fulfill, and the fact that I was needed.

Time is a funny thing. When you return, I suspect you won't have kept them waiting as long as you fear you have.

[danserai]

Mm. I hope so.