The Fifteen Strangers Mods (
strangerpeople) wrote in
15strangers2019-08-16 10:56 pm
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FINAL TRIAL
[The Strangers manage to escape. By the time anyone has realized they have left, the Analemma is already on a course to a new destination, one not intended by their Conductor-who was certainly surprised to find their ride gone, hours later.
Cardia has turned off radar and other equipment that would allow anyone to find the train easily. There is no barrier around this train, so everyone can see the Clockwork Sun as it gets closer and closer.
They aren't going to London, obviously. Cardia manages to explain that, originally, the Throne of Hours was located there, but after Victoria became Twice-Renewed, the Throne was ordered moved closer to the Sun. Now, it is connected to the station called Sunspur-a desolate place, formerly an exhibition hall, where only the Sun's engineers and wayward captains now go. No one dares to cross the bridge that connects the Throne to it, when they are there.
That will change, but not immediately. Even at top speed, it will take several hours for the train to reach its destination. Cardia suggests everyone relax in the Lounge of this new train. Apparently, this one was going to pick up its newest passengers very shortly, and so the bar and kitchens are stocked with food and drink, at least.
There is much to talk about. Much to look through, and much to consider. The past four weeks have been difficult to process, but the evidence from Perdurance has been especially daunting. It only shows just how stark the situation is-and it's up to the Strangers to figure out just what they will do when they do, at last, confront Her Enduring Majesty.
After all.
Whatever happens, a reckoning cannot be postponed. Not indefinitely. And the bill is almost due...]

[It's time! The objectives are simple in this trial: untangle the story of this place and decide what to ultimately do when they finally confront Victoria, the Mastermind of the Little Courtesy! It will not be easy and the truth, as ever, will not be a light one.
Will they triumph? Will they go home? What else might happen? What else could be in store? There's only way to find out!
Have fun, and good luck! And remember-
All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.]
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[Only if betraying her friends by admitting to fear counted as four and five, and if betraying herself was six. But this would be the seventh, if they all die.
If it means Jonathan can live, well, it's nothing she never expected to do. She's back where she was. It seems she's just spinning in circles... she isn't sure what fancy strikes her to do so physically, but she does twirl in one on her way towards the Throne, pulling her hand free from Minato's and laughing.
It is not a happy sound.
She's still laughing (if it can be called that) as she stumbles to a halt with the stone-not-stone before her, and catches herself against it with both hands. She leans against it, and cranes her neck to look up at the "Messengers", or where they might be.]
Heeee-eeeey! What's the guarantee? How does that work?
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[The creature lets out a roar, its sound becoming language, bright irrigo Correspondence. Outside, the Sun fights, screams, begs and hates and loves and screams-
There is something forming around the darkening Soul Gem, as the moments go by and the Strangers cumulatively touch the Throne.]
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Hopefully not a sign that they're fucked sideways. ]
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If the red eyes could widen, they would.]
What are you intending? What is this? You're...even as you're using your magic, you're slowing down time!?
[And indeed, the Soul Gem's darkening is slowing down significantly.]
This isn't proper causality! Your Soul Gem should be collapsing right now! Chaesun Moon...do you intend to use the Throne to become immortal to avoid your fate!?
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[He's chanting it over and over under his breath like a prayer, looking up at the gem.]
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The Gem's darkening slows even more.]
{ No. I am simply making a barrier. An isolation barrier made of Hours.
After all, aren't souls just "a bunch of neurons", according to you? So. . .as the Empress of Hours, slowing a bunch of neurons to near-complete standstill is leagues more efficient than the Little Courtesy. Isn't it?
And with these nine helping me with the seal. . .I thought it was worth the risk. }
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[ Even if some of that definitely went over his head, but it's whatever. Concentrating on a gem is small peanuts. ]
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[The building begins to violently rumble, but its not because of the barrier.
Something is happening outside, in space.]
You can't intend to avoid your fate! What could you possibly intend to do after you've fulfilled your wish? Trapped like that, you won't be able to purify your Soul Gem!
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[His face splits into a wide grin. It's a little unhinged and stiff, but he's. Trying.]
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Oh, shove it up your collective arse, you poisonous bunch-backed toads!
WILL ALL BE WELL?
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[Said after putting down the smols and pressing both paws against the throne. Please...!]
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It is, of course, but there is a perfect gentleman of a cowardly television singing that Vera Lynn song she's heard enough times to know it backwards. How is this real? Dracula is real, though. Was real. Will be again. Maybe she'll be there to kick his ass back into the coffin one last time, maybe she will live to be older than forty.
Charlotte looks at Minato, and places one of her hands over his, even as she can't - doesn't want to - banish thoughts of Jonathan from her mind. She's fickle, and probably crazy, but she does have reasons to live. More than one friend. Maybe a boyfriend, if she hasn't ruined things.
She just has to force her voice to cooperate....]
Don't know where... don't know when....
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The only thing he never lost his passion for.
It's fitting, isn't it? If this is how he dies...well, he'll be fighting to the last, true to his word. People he cares about are here with him, he's not alone anymore. And apparently they're going down singing. He doesn't pull away or twitch at Charlotte's touch.
....He's still so....singing intimidates him. For all he enjoys music, for all he's done private karaoke sessions trying to get up the nerve...it colors his cheeks, but he does add his voice, quietly.]
...some sunny day...
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He's afraid. Not of the death that may well await them, but of the way she tugs free and the sound in her laugh.]
Charlotte--!
[And he follows after, stumbling a little. He has to help. Together, not together, he'd been sure but apparently not. It hurts.
Think about it later. Shove it away, you're good at that, right?
He touches the throne and focuses on the Soul Gem. It helps him ignore the threat of selfish tears that will help no one.]
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Charlotte edges sideways, keeping one hand in contact with the Throne. She isn't sure if she's crying again or if she's just gotten used to the feeling and now her brain's convinced it's happening always. He's focused, head down, might not even be able to hear her, but... she feels like she's falling again. Minato was steady, and she ran away....]
I've hurt you how many times, and now, when we're going to die, even if she manages to pull power evenly - I've done it again, haven't I?
You were never the selfish one. All you wanted was normal - a life, a girlfriend, not to have to kill family. I wish I could give you that.
[That wish might be going up along with whatever it is she's letting the Gem unspool from her. Part of her hopes it is.]
I love you, I think. Hell of a time to figure it out for real, isn't it?
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until he heads one specific word. It's not one he treats lightly. No one has said this word to him, not in this way, since his parents, and it's different when your parents do it. So many people he's gotten close to since returning to Iwatodai, and he can't recall any of them using it. Even Towa. He knows, now, what she'd been trying to tell him, what he'd been unable to comprehend, but she hadn't....said it like this. She hadn't used this word.]
L-Love...? Me?
[It's still so hard to believe. That anyone ever could.]
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Maybe there's no such thing as love in this world, but they aren't from this world. What they can make is theirs, not something belonging to this place. It may not be perfect (nothing from such a ragged heart as hers ever will be) but it is theirs to bring into the world. She smiles, determined to smile, determined to be defiant to the last if this really is the last.]
Yes. You. I love you.
[Her... everything... is a mess, and she's split her lip open again with that imitation of a certain blond's knifeblade grin, but she doesn't care that she's not saying that in a flower garden or a library or anywhere better than this. Here, she can mean it.
And she does.]
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Selfish. Stupid. Creepy. Lazy. Cursed. A curse. Gluttonous. Eats too much. Talks too little. Freak. He's heard it all, really, from bullies or harsher relatives. He knew. They didn't like that his grades were better than their own kid's, so he stopped studying. They didn't like him getting into fights at school, so he stopped defending himself. Once he'd even overheard....well, that's beside the point. He'd been buried under words and sentiments like those for so long, he almost forgot there were any others.
He knew from very early on that he could never become someone others would want. The best he could do was stop being what they didn't.
But apparently everything he thought he knew about his place in the world has gone right out the window, alongside logic and simplicity.]
No one's.....said that to me.... [He feels stinging at his eyes again.]
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[Hell is empty and the devils are all here, but there are also people here. Her people, one of whom she loves differently from the rest, though the fierceness with which she loves them all is the same sort of strange and new.
She'd kiss him, but there's no time - there's singing - if they're lucky, there will be an "after this" where she can -
he promised her a sunrise, a real one -]