The Fifteen Strangers Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strangerpeople) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
notasstrange2023-07-29 07:39 pm
strangerpeople) wrote in notasstrange2023-07-29 07:39 pm
SHIFT Meme
WELCOME! There's been a lot of SHIFTing in this round, hasn't there? What if you were SHIFTed into another round, or another version of this round, or even one of the rounds in R7's backstory? Or....maybe somewhere else entirely??
Look no further than here! So sit back, tap into the morphogenetic field, and come on down! Your characters are the next contestants on...on wherever they end up! Oh boy!
| 1. The Ship of Blood Well, this one is familiar at least! But...who are all these people with you? Is that one of the Spardas? Wait-who's that guy with the fedora? You mean there are timelines where there are more rounds!? BOOOOOOOO! 2. The Home of Happiness and Horror Oh great, you're in Denton, Aka a soundstage where you are forced to kill one another in front of a live worldwide audience. Oh, and said audience gets a vote in who dies. Oh, and in some timelines, you randomly start singing! Or...wear full body costumes. It's weird. 3. ??? The Meme is ever-present. The Meme will not be contained. The multiversal clusters are vast and infinite. Perhaps you SHIFT into a previous game. Perhaps you SHIFT into a game as yet known. Or perhaps it is happening right now. Who knows, now...and what fate awaits you...? |
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Still, when she sees Roland, she smiles, though the expression is slightly wan.]
Maybe. But I couldn't sleep.
You couldn't either, huh?
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[ There's a quiet weariness on his face. He didn't even have Durandal with him right now, so what reason would anyone have to think that he was out tonight to take someone's life? Akane is sweet, gentle and kind.
He was already having second thoughts because to take a life such as hers? It seemed like an impossible task right at the moment. ]
Why don't we go and have a talk over some tea? I know it might help.
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Yeah, okay.
[A long pause as she turns, and makes her way with him to the tea room.]
Do...
Do you really think anything will...
They'll be all right, right?
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You mean... the hostages?
[ A flash of Olivier's face, his unkempt raven locks and those sharp eyes looking so tired and worn. He had to push that aside and just nodded, but his heart didn't entirely look to be in it. ]
Right now, yeah. Though if... nothing happens? Zero will go through with his promise to... [ He swallows past a lump in his throat. ] It's almost an unbearable thought. I don't want anyone else to die..
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It's....
He has my brother.
Roland, I don't know what to do. Everyone I love keeps dying.
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Should nothing happen... she'd have to watch HIM die too. Sacrificed to this awful ship. ]
You shouldn't be made to experience that.
[ A small exhale. Maybe... just maybe...? He had a knife tucked up his sleeve, so it could be simply done. So quick. ]
...If you could see them again, would you be happy, Akane?
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[Its so clear that she doesn't suspect. But how could she? It was Roland.]
The people who died?
... do you think we'll be able to, in the end?
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Yeah. I do.
[ His head is bowed, brows knit slightly. ]
You must be so lonely, Akane. I want to help you be able to see them again.
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I'll... I'll be okay. I have to stay strong, right? But... if there is some way we can.... I can....
I want that. I do want that.
It's stupid to feel lonely when theres so many people still here, right? Stupid. But sometimes... yeah.
This is a terrible place.
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Her words echo in his head over and over. That's why he stopped in his tracks for a moment, which has her able to get just a little ahead of him. ]
...Terrible is right.
[ Roland moved forwards, pulling her into a one armed hug from behind with his head bowed slightly. ]
Ô seigneur, s'il te plaît, pardonne-moi ce péché que je dois commettre.
[ She may recognize those words he'd just whispered, exhaling a shaky breath. This was horrible and she's so small. So fragile. It doesn't quite still the way his one arm trembles as it slips the knife out of his sleeve. ]
I'm so sorry, Akane.
[ That... sure is a knife coming up quick, intended to stab into her heart if nothing prevents it. ]
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[Even hearing a few words of the whispered French, even hearing his apology, she didn't quite realize, because it was Roland, and for all his fire, for all the ability he had to kill, he wouldn't, surely, he never would.
But she turns to look at him, and the gentle motion of that, combined with the way he is shaking, is enough to make the knife miss her heart.
Instead he pierces one of her lungs.
It doesn't even hurt, not at first, the sensation only feels sharp and cold and wrong.]
R-Roland...?
[She's repeating herself, but now it's confusion instead of simple concern, because she can't comprehend it. And she can't get a breath. And the wound begins to hurt, a slow building pain like fire, and she still doesn't truly understand.]
W...what.... What happened?
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Then she'd turned to look at him and the knife pierced her lung instead, eyes widening because no no no no... She was going to hate him once she realized how awful of a person he had become. Roland's expression twisted into one of hurt, like he'd been the one who had gotten stabbed.
His hand tightened around the knife, hesitating as he closed his eyes briefly. ]
I... I couldn't bear to live with myself if Olivier died... you don't deserve this either... Akane I... [ Ah. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes. ] Truly I am the worst...
[ Even as his hand shook, he still managed to pull out the blade that now shone with her blood upon it's silvery surface. ]
I wanted to make it painless for you.
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She could taste blood, and as she clung to Roland and coughed in a desperate attempt to get enough air her blood shone on her lips, coated her tongue.
He had killed her. But the realization felt dim and unreal, even still, and he was the only one there and so she still clung to him, feeling dizzy as blood soaked down the back of her dress and she fought to keep breathing.]
It hurts. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.... R-Roland, help me....
[But she didn't know what she was asking him to do. Kill her? No. But hadn't he already?
Akane leaned against him and coughed up blood, gasping still, worse as her lung began to fill with blood, feeling dizzier and dizzier until she couldn't stay standing anymore, until her knees tried to give out under her, and if he didn't catch her she'd collapse.]
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An ugly color that darkened the front of her blue sweater dress, dripping off the end of the knife he very carefully tucked away. Even now, Akane still clung to him and his mind began reeling.
Her pained words stinging sharper than any weapon.
Wordlessly he went on instinct and carefully pulled her into his arms before she fell, ignoring how his boot smeared into some of the blood on the floor as he headed forwards. They'd just reached C deck anyway, so he carried her to the Tea Room and in his haste to reach a good spot to situate her?
A chair got knocked down in the process and he'd probably gotten smeared blood on the door. What mattered was setting her down with her back against a wall. She was in so much pain. It would be a slow death... and he couldn't make her suffer anymore. ]
I can... make it stop. So you won't have to be in pain anymore, Akane.
[ There's so much hurt and sadness in his voice, even as he's taken out the knife again. Not pressing it yet but... the point was placed over her heart. ]
...Just say the word... anything...
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She begins to cry.]
I don't... I d-don't want to die.
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A...Akane... I'm so sorry... please... please forgive me.
[ It's almost hard to see now but he's made it this far, head bowing for a second. Then another. ]
There's no other way.
[ A deep exhale, then in one fell swoop he pushed the knife in deep. Plunging it straight into her poor heart. ]
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And then the thrust, and this time it is a sharp and terrible pain. She can feel her heart fluttering desperately, feel the knife sticking though it as though to pin it to a card, feel the blood (and it, now, is nearly all that feels warm) begin to soak through her dress again. She screams, or tries to, in some combination of terror and pain, but she does not have the air for it and only chokes on her blood.
Her hand finally loses its grip as the world begins to narrow, to close in, and its ice this time instead of fire, isn't it?
She'd cry, but she doesn't have the breath. She tries to reach his hand, reach the handle of the knife that he stabbed her with, but she doesn't have the strength. But she tries and she tries and she tries-
Until, eventually, she doesn't.
Her dull lifeless eyes are still open, and a last few tears still escape to roll down her dead white cheeks.]
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To hear her choke on blood. To feel her grip loosening.
Green hues numbly looked down, witnessing those final attempts to try and reach that knife that rended a hole into her poor heart. Tears continued to fall down his cheeks even as she breathed her last, leaving him in silence with his own thoughts. Akane Kuroshiki was dead. He'd killed her and her blood now was on his hands.
Eventually he pulled that knife out and tucked it away, reaching a hand out to carefully close her eyes before moving to carefully lift her off of the ground.
He didn't go far, finding a table that faced the door to the tea room and gently sat her body down in a chair before situating things. By the end of it, Akane looked like she'd slumped over on the table with her cheek pressed into the table, believably appearing as if she were simply asleep. Roland whispered a prayer for her dearly departed soul, and to hope she can see Kaito and Moriarty again.
Turning to leave, he noticed her watch was on the ground and without thinking? Picked it up and put it in his pocket. There was too much blood on his cassock right now, so he left to the bathroom to clean off as much as he could but thankfully blood didn't show up well on black. Once he'd done all he could with that as well as any that might be on his face or hands, Roland then looked at himself in one of the mirrors and saw just how haunted he looked. This brought on something cold and visceral in his gut, and one hand lashed out with a fist into the mirror hard enough to shatter most of it.
Breathing heavily, he paid little mind to the bleeding in his hand other than to just stick it in one pocket. Then he took two steps forwards before just... taking out the knife and tossing it across the floor.
He was... tired. SO tired. Not thinking was easier.
The only reason he'd wanted to get rid of so much blood on him was that Val could probably smell it on him if he wasn't careful. That's it. Roland wandered back to his room, quietly entered and after meticulously removing his boots and cassock? Went to curl up in his bed, to maybe try and sleep. ]