[ENTER THE PALACE]

[warpweft]

[You find yourself with a sensation like floating in water.]

[Above, the sky is dark. You can occasionally see things shifting, like gusts of wind, or perhaps waves of water. Is it…even a sky above you? Or is it some kind of giant ocean? Whatever it is, you can’t make it out very well. All around you, you appear to be floating in what appears to be water. It looks like a great, wide ocean of…space in every direction around you, with stars and lights twinkling in the distance. It looks like water and feels like water, but it doesn’t make you wet. You can reach your hand into it and pull some out, the purple and violet water and the tiny points of light inside it will even rest in your hands if you cup them to carry it, but once you’re not trying to hold it anymore, it’ll flow off of you, not a single drop remaining behind. You feel something similar if you go underneath the surface. The “water” doesn’t touch your eyes, mouth or nose when give the chance, it merely drifts around you, allowing you to breathe and see unabated. And you can see for a great distance, the twinkling stars illuminating the ocean of space all around you. Though perhaps less dark and empty, it feels every bit as vast as the sky above. You feel like you could swim forever and never reach the edge.]

[It’s quiet, here, with little noise around you but the starry ocean’s waves crashing back into its surface. It’s peaceful. In another situation, it might even be comfortable.]

Comments

[voidhearts]

[You get closer to the current and it pulls you down towards the palace. You have little to no trouble breathing or seeing as you get closer. The current takes your further and further until it eventually releases you outside the front of the palace. Still upside down from your perspective, you see a great wooden door with a single metal handle in front of you.

[There’s a violet sphere of light, sitting on the handle, softly pulsing as it bobs up and down. You can’t touch the handle without touching the sphere.]

[messianic]

[ here we gooooo. If he gets a little closer to the sphere but doesn't touch it, does it feel warmer or cooler or anything like that? ]

[voidhearts]

[The orb pulses slightly every few seconds. You feel a slight heat touch your hand that gradually cools until a cold feeling briefly takes the tips of your fingers and then fades away.]

[messianic]

[ HMMMM....

Well.

Okay. He reaches for the door handle properly, to see if that door will open. ]

/?

[voidhearts]

[Your hand reaches for the handle....]

---

[Your hand is on the handle of the door, pulling it closed. You were in such a hurry to leave the house that you almost forgot to close the door behind you. You take one last look at the cabin as you take a couple steps back from it, then you look at the other similar cabins nearby. Then you turn and run, as fast as your small legs will carry you, your feet kicking up dust on the dirt ground beneath you.]

...

[You’re standing in front of the door to the temple. You swallow once, look down at your hands and then you push the door open, slipping inside. You walk past the wide tables that everybody sits at for meals and up to a curtain dividing the common area from the rest of the temple.]

...

What are you doing here?

[voidhearts]

[You’re pulling back the curtain, revealing a pedestal. Sitting atop the pedestal is a small glass bubble. Violet light radiates off it. Dozens, hundreds, possible even thousands of lights twinkle inside it, forming a swirling spiral at the sphere’s center. It looks like space and stars and even galaxies all contained inside one small glass sphere, moving perfectly in concert with one another.

Your hand slowly reaches out for it. Then hesitates. Then hesitates.

Instead of grabbing it, you lightly touch two fingers to the top of it. You feel a pulse coming off of it.

A second later, you’re taking it in your hand and moving the curtain back into place.]

Oh, I get it. She brought you here.

[voidhearts]

[You’re on your hands and knees. You let out a wheezing noise. All of the air was knocked out of you by a strike to your stomach. You’re just trying to get air back into your lungs. You look up and see several figures nearby, talking to each other. You try to crawl towards one of them, but your arms and legs are like jelly and you just collapse and let out another weak, wheezy cry.]

Too bad for you….

[You’ve pulled yourself into a sitting position. You see her standing above you, her face spread into a wide, sadistic grin. She holds up the weapon in her hand and plunges it down towards you.]

done

[voidhearts]

You’re gonna end up just like her!

[You’re Nessa Houghton, staring up at your cousin as she stabs you in the chest.]

[You’re Minato Arisato, staring up at a white-haired young woman as she stabs you in the stomach.]

[The last thing you see before you lose consciousness is the grin on her face.]

[messianic]

[ ... well that's unfortunate.

He's still reeling from the sensory overload of everything he just saw--(felt, experienced?)--and then there's the shooting pain of being stabbed right in the gut.

It's not the first time, which is really saying something about his life, but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable.



And then, there's nothing as he falls unconscious. ]

/2

[voidhearts]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[CH-THUNK]

[You feel a jolt run through your entire body, jarring you awake and making you take in a sudden, deep breath and sit up straight. Immediately followed by falling back down. You once again feel like you’re floating in water.]

[warpweft]

Oh, finally. I was afraid you really were going to die on my watch.

[Your vision is blurry, but gradually returning to you. If you have glasses, they’re being held out to you. One way or the other, your vision clears up and you can see a woman standing above you, arms crossed, glaring down at you…]

[With a pair of glowing yellow eyes.]

Don’t force yourself to get up too quickly. Your body is still recovering.

[messianic]

[ ..... squints...?

Honestly, he is willing to just lie here until his body stops protesting, but he's still squinting and trying to figure this out. ]

... Nessa-san...?

[warpweft]

[She holds out a single finger and boops him on the nose.]

That's my name, don't wear it out.

[cosplayed_out]

[She eventually touched it.]

/4

[voidhearts]

[Your hand reaches for the handle....]

---

[Your hand is on the handle of the door, pulling it closed. You were in such a hurry to leave the house that you almost forgot to close the door behind you. You take one last look at the cabin as you take a couple steps back from it, then you look at the other similar cabins nearby. Then you turn and run, as fast as your small legs will carry you, your feet kicking up dust on the dirt ground beneath you.]

…

[You’re standing in front of the door to the temple. You swallow once, look down at your hands and then you push the door open, slipping inside. You walk past the wide tables that everybody sits at for meals and up to a curtain dividing the common area from the rest of the temple.]

…

What are you doing here?

[voidhearts]

[You’re pulling back the curtain, revealing a pedestal. Sitting atop the pedestal is a small glass bubble. Violet light radiates off it. Dozens, hundreds, possible even thousands of lights twinkle inside it, forming a swirling spiral at the sphere’s center. It looks like space and stars and even galaxies all contained inside one small glass sphere, moving perfectly in concert with one another.

Your hand slowly reaches out for it. Then hesitates. Then hesitates.

Instead of grabbing it, you lightly touch two fingers to the top of it. You feel a pulse coming off of it.

A second later, you’re taking it in your hand and moving the curtain back into place.]

Oh, I get it. She brought you here.

[voidhearts]

[You’re on your hands and knees. You let out a wheezing noise. All of the air was knocked out of you by a strike to your stomach. You’re just trying to get air back into your lungs. You look up and see several figures nearby, talking to each other. You try to crawl towards one of them, but your arms and legs are like jelly and you just collapse and let out another weak, wheezy cry.]

Too bad for you….

[You’ve pulled yourself into a sitting position. You see her standing above you, her face spread into a wide, sadistic grin. She holds up the weapon in her hand and plunges it down towards you.]

done

[voidhearts]

You’re gonna end up just like her!

[You’re Nessa Houghton, staring up at your cousin as she stabs you in the chest.]

[You’re Tsumugi Shirogane staring up at a white-haired young woman as she stabs you in the chest.]

[The last thing you see before you lose consciousness is the grin on her face.]

[cosplayed_out]

[oh dear lord]

[She tries to say something but all that comes out is a pathetic wheeze]

[The words "No, I won't" are her final thought as she collapses.]

/2

[voidhearts]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[CH-THUNK]

[You feel a jolt run through your entire body, jarring you awake and making you take in a sudden, deep breath and sit up straight. Immediately followed by falling back down. You once again feel like you’re floating in water.]

[warpweft]

Oh, finally. I was afraid you really were going to die on my watch.

[Your vision is blurry, but gradually returning to you. If you have glasses, they’re being held out to you. One way or the other, your vision clears up and you can see a woman standing above you, arms crossed, glaring down at you…]

[With a pair of glowing yellow eyes.]

Don’t force yourself to get up too quickly. Your body is still recovering.

[cosplayed_out]

Wah!

[she blinks, then takes her glasses]

Where am I? What year is it?

[...]

Did I wake up back in the good old 1955?

[warpweft]

Oh, certainly. Winston Churchill has resigned and the conclusion to Lord of the Rings just came out!

[cosplayed_out]

...the movie or the book?

[warpweft]

The book. The book came out in 1955. I don't care if you were just stabbed in the chest, I expect you to keep up with the pop culture, here.

[She pinches Tsumugi's cheek.]