fracturarpg | [mingle] the space (april).

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[mingle] the space (april).

interim mingle

( WELCOME BACK, TRAVELERS. )

There's nothing but the clatter of train tracks, and the odd feeling of almost floating.

When you wake, it's hard to tell exactly what it is that you're missing - only that you are. There are pieces that aren't quite right, even if you're not sure where those pieces would normally be. Pieces of what, exactly....? Well, if you had to put a word to it, it would be - yourself, probably. Or did you get something back recently? In addition, characters will find that they've been allowed to bring back souvenirs from this most recent trip - trinkets, nothing violent, but items that can fit in your character's pockets, whether that be sentimental or otherwise.

The place you've found yourself in is strange, certainly. It's probably worth exploring a bit. For those who have been here a while, they might notice some expansions. Though it just as easily seems that the only form of welcome or explanation that you have, comes from nothing more than a slab of marble.

It might've changed since the last time you saw it. Today it reads:

(*´ω｀)o That wasn't so bad, was it?
Hey, you know how that old song goes?
Do you believe in magic? (☆▽☆) Do ya?

Hope you found what you were looking for!

You might have changed since the last time you saw yourself too - perhaps with a new emblem on your clothes, or a portrait on your skin. In addition to that, it seems like Home Base is on the fritz again…?

It seems that suddenly and at random, characters will be able to suddenly see visions of memories that aren't their own flash before their eyes. Pieces of your lives or where you were before this will suddenly slam into other's heads, as clearly as if they experienced the event and the feelings themselves. You might have an inkling of where your memory went and what it was - but you'll need to talk it out with that person in order to recollect it in all its strength back to yourself. Don't you want to keep those precious parts of yourself? It's best if you don't fall more to pieces while you're here. (Memories that have been lost in fragments cannot be sent to others - that's more fun for the future!)

There's no need to fret that much though. You've already gone through the ordeal once, and you might be able to see results from it. Or maybe you'll get a glimpse of where you're going next. Even so, it's best that you don't get too comfortable, because there is still the unshakeable feeling:

There's still much more ahead of you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i.

[ You'll find Royce, with his stupid cloak and his stupid hood pulled up, sitting in the food court. He has ice cream. And he's staring at it. If you get close enough to see his face under the cloak, you'll see his wistful and conflicted expression.

Unfortunately, if you're close enough to see his expression, you're also close enough to see him, which means he scowls at you and pushes the ice cream away. ]

What. Leave me alone. [ Unless you're Wen Ning, which means he'll just stare at you. points to eyes points to teej. ]

ii.

[ this time, there's no sign of Royce anywhere as you're walking through the Store.

But you do absolutely get a memory. Pick your poison. ]

[royce's presence definitely draws his attention-- how can it not, after everything?-- and while wen ning hesitates at first...

he decides, after a few moments, to go for it, and settles in next to royce with a glance at the ice cream. that expression is something, definitely, though wen ning's own is... not that dissimilar, honestly. faintly wistful. a little bit uncertain.

royce stares at him, and for a moment or two he's quiet.]

... you should finish it before it melts.

[cool! very smooth! he immediately regrets it, could he not say hi or something instead...]

[ he doesn't seem to mind wen ning sitting next to him, at least. in fact, his body language relaxes just a tinge. it'd been weird, the first time they'd come back. but now? after a second time... it just seems like this is how it should be.

he takes the ice cream and pushes it towards wen ning gently. ]

You can help. [ royce says, quietly. ]

[oh-- he smiles a little at that, both the offer and the way royce seems to relax a little. he was afraid, honestly, that it would still be more like the first time.

it's not like that for him either, though. maybe there really is something to the way some ties just persist.]

Okay. You still have to have some too, though.

[shut up & enjoy the ice cream, they're Sharing. wen ning takes a little bite, then brightens; it's much better with fully functional senses.]

[ ah, the brightening makes royce's lips twitch under the hood. shut up, don't look at him. ]

I was planning on it. [ a pause, and he'll take a small bite as well, though it's mostly for wen ning's benefit. ] Things are less dire this time around, it seems.

[too bad, he's looking! it's cute, he thinks... he likes seeing that.

another bite, and he hums softly to himself.]

They... they are. I'm still not really sure what to make of all of that, though...

[all of the violence but with so little of the seriousness-- in retrospect, he hates thinking of seeing wei wuxian die that many times, but it was never really a threat. it's-- weird.]

Mm. Me either. [ royce is quiet for a long moment. ]

Though I am surprised I haven't been threatened more for the rumors. [ tee hee ]

Wait, you-?

[HELLO? guess who didn't catch on, it's wen ning... he flushes slightly, the spoon paused halfway to his mouth. at least he wasn't eating at the time.]

That... that explains the one about me, doesn't it...

['can personally confirm,' huh. god. he should have paid more attention to that.]

[ royce laughs! it's his usual quiet huff of a sound, more rumbling than actual laughter, but wen ning probably recognizes it by now. ]

I'm surprised nobody figured it out, considering there were never any rumors about me. [ he sounds amused. ] I tried to go easy on you.

No, no, it's... I sort of liked that one.

[it was cute, as rumors go. and knowing he tried to make it something pretty harmless--

well, how could wen ning not appreciate the effort at saving him from embarrassment?]

I thought maybe there weren't any about you because they were afraid of what would happen.

[ WOW way to stroke his ego. royce practically preens at that. it probably wasn't meant to be a compliment, but he takes it as one. royce is very scary. ]

You'd be surprised how many people in this place aren't afraid of me. [ royce says, wryly. ] When they really should be.

Anyway.

If that's supposed to be a hint, you should know by now that I'm bad at that.

[being scared of people he maybe should-- being scared of royce, specifically. instead he's- well, probably scared by too many people he shouldn't be. but he shrugs slightly, taking another bite of ice cream; wen ning hasn't been properly intimidated by him since their first meeting, when he decided royce was nicer than he looked.]

I do know. [ more wry. ] But I also know that you are not as helpless as you appear. You don't have much to fear from me.

[ he's going to let wen ning enjoy his ice cream. it's nice to see him be able to taste it properly. ]

...you don't, either.

[it's much quieter, because-- well. royce knows what he actually is. what he should be.

and maybe it's that which makes an amalgam of memories slip from him to royce. maybe it's coincidental timing. but either way...

the first part of the memory begins with the shrill sound of a flute, but it is... fuzzy. distant. as if he's only half-aware of anything around him; he does not draw breath, and his eyes are unseeing. there's nothing but a sense of people around, of many with flagging energy and some with more vital energy. more corpses animated by resentful energy nearby. and one lone spot of more intense resentful energy, the one who called him. whose commands he recognizes. he's barely aware of anything else, until that person says something and the intent behind it makes him reach out mindlessly for the two closest bodies, grabbing them by the throats, lifting them off the ground.

then, a clearer command, in a voice royce absolutely knows. wei wuxian calls his name: 'wen qionglin!', and though he cannot speak, a roar comes from him as if in reply. 'whoever caused all of you to be like this, let them meet the same end. i give you the right to do so. settle everything!'

it only takes a moment for him to kill them both, a brief but grotesque display. the rest is a blur, fighting them, targeting who he had been told to harm, and he's in the middle of dismembering one when he's told to stop. he balks, at first, but there's a whistle and a repetition of the order, and all he can do is obey. all he can do is follow.

then, there's not much. a period of fuzziness again, where it feels like things must be happening around him but he's incapable of noticing, of paying them any mind. somewhere in there, though, there's eventually just-- blinding rage, as if something had suddenly broken and unleashed it all. the urge to fight and to destroy, to rampage thoughtlessly, unable to pay any mind to what it is he's attacking and effortlessly tearing apart. there's no sense of time, of how long it continues before there's the sound of a few notes from a stringed instrument, along with something that slows him down. he staggers forward regardless-

but the flute sounds again, the other instrument joining in, and between the two of them he's finally brought to his knees. the flute stops abruptly, the strings intensifying, tormenting him; he's all the way on the ground, roaring, curled there with his arms wrapped around his head.

through the pain, though, there's-- awareness, finally. the fog slowly clears, though he can't move, and though it's so, so difficult to speak he manages to call out for young master wei. he exclaims something in return, and the vibrations of the stringed instrument stop; he has to put effort into each word as he speaks wei wuxian's name once more, but he can look at him and at lan wangji. he feels more like himself. someone he can't identify throws themselves at him, crying and laughing both, and in the background one of the uncles cheers that he's woken up, running to let the others know. wei wuxian comes up beside him to ask how he's feeling, and he can only stammer at first, lying on the ground, his body feeling abnormally stiff. he isn't breathing. it's still hard to force his voice to respond, to make his muscles work in the way he intends them to. the strangest part, though, is that-- he feels emotions. he knows what the response should be, but it just won't come. there's sadness without the lump in his throat, the sting in his eyes... there's no physical response at all from this body that abruptly feels too hollow.

he finally manages: '...i want to cry, but i can't. what's wrong...'

wei wuxian is silent for a moment, before patting his shoulder.

'you remember, don't you? you're dead already.']

Edited 2020-04-17 05:09 (UTC)

[ it's not anything that he's experienced before, these memory shares. it hits him right in the gut, in the chest, makes it so that when wen ning can't breathe, neither can royce. he grabs the table, gloves creaking so hard it's almost a cry. the violence means nothing to him. he's done about the same, he's experienced as much. it's the part that comes after that makes him want to scream.

feeling carved out like that makes him feel sick. it's an unfortunately familiar sensation, but he's never felt it to this degree. it's ten times worse.

silence, for a long moment. a long, long moment.

and then, carefully, with a shivery exhale, like he'd been holding his breath - royce pulls off his glove. he sets it on the table, and then, staring down at the table, reaches over and takes wen ning's hand. ]

[oh. that's unexpected-- he isn't sure what he's just lost, what royce has seen, but the gesture of removing the glove first is touching in a way that small things sometimes are, a way that makes them feel much bigger. wen ning takes that hand gratefully, laces their fingers together and holds tights, just... taking in the warmth and the contact, the fact that it's something royce offered first this time.

he has a feeling, both in a distant sense of awareness and in realization thanks to that gesture, that it was one of the more difficult ones. he's quiet for a few moments before he swallows a small lump in his throat and manages-]

I'm... I'm sorry. Some of them are-- they're not things others should have to see.

[they're better without some of the things he's experienced.]

What...

[he doesn't quite finish the sentence, trailing off there.]

[ it was definitely one of the more difficult ones. royce is quiet for a moment, just - sorting through what he can still see. what he feels the remains of. he keeps hold of wen ning's hand, because. he can. because he can. it feels odd to do, but not bad. that's new. ]

You died. And were called back.

[ he goes still, a concentrated effort not to shiver. ]

Is this one of the things this place is inflicting on people? Sharing memories?

...it is. It's happened to me already. I think I can't... recall what it is that you saw, without you telling me about it.

[and that gets an apologetic look, as he continues to cling to that hand. he has a feeling going into much more detail won't exactly be pleasant.

but he does know one thing about being raised, something impossible to forget with how much it's tied into their relationship.]

Please don't think any less of young master Wei for what he did. I wouldn't be here, if he hadn't.

[he's tried to keep wei wuxian out of it, when he's mentioned being dead to royce and xie lian. but if royce saw memories of being called back again, he must know, and if he knows then wen ning feels an immediate need to make sure his young master is defended.]

I don't think less of him. [ royce says, right off the bat. because he doesn't, honestly. it makes him uncomfortable to think of someone commanding wen ning to do their bidding, more than anything. he doesn't let go of wen ning's hand, but his expression under the hood twitches. ]

There was a flute. A command from Wei Wuxian to kill the people that killed you. Violence, for a while. And then I - you. Woke up. People were excited to see you alive, but you weren't. You couldn't...

[ he pauses, and then looks away. ]

I've felt carved out, in my life, but never like that.

[-oh. there it is, there's what he was missing, and wen ning winces slightly at the thought. not because it hurts him (he's used to it by now), but because it must be-- difficult, for someone who hasn't experienced it to feel.]

I don't... know what happened to me.

[his death's lost to him, for now, but he thinks that's all right. if he ever remembered it in the first place.]

But it's- I could still feel emotions, at least. My body just couldn't respond to them... it was harder to get it to work, for some things.

[speaking, expressions, small and controlled motions. it's been a relief that his fingers aren't as clumsy as he's used to them being.]

[ so much frowning. ]

I can't imagine what that must be like. [ he says, quietly. ] It isn't like that for you right now, though.

...no, it isn't. Sometimes I feel a little like I must be making up for lost time-- I think I used to be better at... handling my own reactions.

[he doesn't really like to think about how he just- sobbed on wei wuxian shortly after arriving.]

Not necessarily a bad thing. [ royce says, glancing at him. ] If I were you, I would be taking advantage of every second.

[ a pause. he carefully links their fingers together. ]

[that gets a tiny little smile-- just a faint quirk of his mouth, as his hand settles into place.]

I'm... I'm trying to take advantage of it wherever I can.

[there's no telling if it will stick; he hopes, but he knows good things don't always last.]

...you've helped. You helped me a lot, last time.

[paying attention to what he could and couldn't feel, taking advantage of the things wen ning was able to enjoy. giving him those experiences. it's all something valuable.]

[ there's a brief look of approval, a slight nod of the head. he still has his hood up, but his body language has relaxed quite a bit. ]

Mm. [ here, in the space, it's a little harder to take compliments, a little harder to accept any sort of emotion like this. but he can try. he can try, when he remembers the smile on wen ning's face at his offer for ice cream, at the way they danced quietly by themselves. ]

I tried. [ royce says, with a sniff. ] I'm amazed that I was able to.

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