The Fifteen Strangers Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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15strangers2019-08-16 10:56 pm
strangerpeople) wrote in 15strangers2019-08-16 10:56 pm
Entry tags:
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.]
no subject
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.]
no subject
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.]
no subject
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.]
no subject
[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 -]