[ he nods. ] It turned into a... I don't know, it was kind of like a sword, but it was shaped like a key.
[ (distant utada playing in the background)
anyway. ] There were... um, besides the bottom floor, there were four floors of this place - kinda like a tower. It kept going up. We took the stairs up to the first one, and... it was mine. The stained glass looked like me.
[ ichiro pauses, here, and reaches up to rub his hand on the back of his neck. ] ...There were these pods. One on each floor. Mine had...
[ who did it have, again? he freezes, for a second, thinking. thinking hard, brow furrowing - and then realization, followed immediately by hurt, immediately by anger flash across his face. ]
... my brother. My little brother, Jiro. That's how we saw you, too.
Mm. [ he lifts his hands to make sort of an egg shape? ] At the edge of the platform. It looked sort of like a flower. You guys were sleeping, and they closed up around you.
[ he jitters a little, biting the inside of his cheek. ]
...Once they closed up, we had to fight monsters. There were some white ones on my floor, and a big round one. We didn't have that much trouble with them, but... when we finished, we opened up the pod, and he wasn't in there anymore. There was just this... crayon drawing. Of... of the three of us, me and Jiro, and... [ there it is again - his brow furrows, harder. ] ...and my other brother. His name's -
[ no. nope! he's not thinking about this again. not right now. ichiro closes his eyes. ] ... my other brother. After that, more of those crayon drawings came down from the sky, but they were... they were fine. I grabbed them, but I think... I think the person on mine was kind of important. I'm sure he was, I just... it's still fucked up. I can't remember who it was.
And then we went up the stairs. That was where we saw you, the second floor - on the way up, we got... I don't know. I just started getting angry. Everyone started doing badly.
[ thinking about forgetting his brothers made him distressed as all hell, but - the calm reminder helps. he nods, mouth drawing into a tight line, and then slides a hand into his pocket, seeming to remember something. a little digging, and pulls he something out - it's a folded piece of paper. he smooths out a crayon drawing for caleb to see. ] ...sorry. Sorry. Okay. This - heh, it's kinda ironic. I got this before we went, it was in my stocking - but they all looked like this, more or less. We all got something little from home in our dorm. Mine was this picture - I don't think it had anything to do with where we went.
[ (anna voice) bad namine crayon drawings ]
...But that was what was in the pod, and then, what came out when we beat up the monsters. [ he has to think hard, for a second, trying to remember. ] Right after I beat up the monster, that place made me think someone I knew from home was a student here. [ realization seems to come - a little more clarity, as he recognizes how fucked that was. ] I felt like he was my friend at Wiwaldi, not - not what happened at home. Kuko.
I didn't see what Beau forgot for that one. But, your floor... [ on his arms...? ichiro squints, trying to think back to caleb, though. ]
Yours... man, that was when I got hit with the lightning. [ he touches the inside of his own arm, wincing a little. ] I got up, and I went over to check on Beau, because she was freaking out. We all were. It - that place fucked with our heads. Before we went upstairs, it did something weird with our emotions, too. I think... I don't know what Beau was feeling, but that place just made me angry. It might be why she was freaked out.
As for your pod... I knew it was you, still. She did too, then. And when we got your paper out of the pod, it was... weird. It was fucked up looking compared to the others. It was burnt, and - you had one yellow eye. Parts of the stick figure were colored this weird, shadowy black, too.[ a beat. ]
I think... I think I know why, though. When I went for Jiro, I tried to pull the thing open, but I figured out it probably wasn't real. [ thanks, caleb! ] And, Beau... she attacked the pod, when we were all trying to fend off the monsters, and I think it cracked.
That fucked us up bad. I... that was when I forgot, about them. [ about his brothers. he hates it, heart lurching in his chest; ichiro shakes his head, hard, trying to clear the fog off. ] And we all remembered wrong. I remembered something that happened to Taichi like it was my own life.
So, I think it might've fucked yours up too. That's just a guess, though.
[ unless that was a hint and wow calebs the mastermind ]
Maybe. Or just maybe an ugly thing to show her, to punish her.
[He knows Beauregard; so stubborn and fierce. But there's always something fragile behind it. She'll hit hard and determined to try to save someone but if it goes wrong it's easy to shatter her. And she would try to save him, even a version of him that is fucked up and blackened and covered in eyes.]
No - no. [ he's quick to correct, on that one, shaking his head. ] You were asleep. Once we saw you guys in the pods, they closed up right away.
It was a monster. On that floor, there was a big one that spit ice, and then two smaller ones that floated. Taichi's - he's not that tall, and I am, and... that place made me so angry I wasn't thinking straight. I couldn't tell what the floating ones were gonna do right away, and since beating them up worked really well before, I attacked it with the blade.
[ ichiro glances down at his hand, opening his palm with his lightning mark. ] And... uh. Metal... conducts lightning.
Haha.
[
sometimes you're an idiot protagonist who goes rushing into situations and you are punished for it ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ (distant utada playing in the background)
anyway. ] There were... um, besides the bottom floor, there were four floors of this place - kinda like a tower. It kept going up. We took the stairs up to the first one, and... it was mine. The stained glass looked like me.
[ ichiro pauses, here, and reaches up to rub his hand on the back of his neck. ] ...There were these pods. One on each floor. Mine had...
[ who did it have, again? he freezes, for a second, thinking. thinking hard, brow furrowing - and then realization, followed immediately by hurt, immediately by anger flash across his face. ]
... my brother. My little brother, Jiro. That's how we saw you, too.
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[He's curious about himself, about what Beau saw, but also. . . ]
I'm sorry you had to see him like that.
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[ he jitters a little, biting the inside of his cheek. ]
...Once they closed up, we had to fight monsters. There were some white ones on my floor, and a big round one. We didn't have that much trouble with them, but... when we finished, we opened up the pod, and he wasn't in there anymore. There was just this... crayon drawing. Of... of the three of us, me and Jiro, and... [ there it is again - his brow furrows, harder. ] ...and my other brother. His name's -
[ no. nope! he's not thinking about this again. not right now. ichiro closes his eyes. ] ... my other brother. After that, more of those crayon drawings came down from the sky, but they were... they were fine. I grabbed them, but I think... I think the person on mine was kind of important. I'm sure he was, I just... it's still fucked up. I can't remember who it was.
And then we went up the stairs. That was where we saw you, the second floor - on the way up, we got... I don't know. I just started getting angry. Everyone started doing badly.
no subject
[And it was sort of upsetting!!!!!
. . . Also, after a second.]
Jiro and Saburo. It's alright, you'll remember soon.
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[ (anna voice) bad namine crayon drawings ]
...But that was what was in the pod, and then, what came out when we beat up the monsters. [ he has to think hard, for a second, trying to remember. ] Right after I beat up the monster, that place made me think someone I knew from home was a student here. [ realization seems to come - a little more clarity, as he recognizes how fucked that was. ] I felt like he was my friend at Wiwaldi, not - not what happened at home. Kuko.
I didn't see what Beau forgot for that one. But, your floor... [ on his arms...? ichiro squints, trying to think back to caleb, though. ]
Yours... man, that was when I got hit with the lightning. [ he touches the inside of his own arm, wincing a little. ] I got up, and I went over to check on Beau, because she was freaking out. We all were. It - that place fucked with our heads. Before we went upstairs, it did something weird with our emotions, too. I think... I don't know what Beau was feeling, but that place just made me angry. It might be why she was freaked out.
As for your pod... I knew it was you, still. She did too, then. And when we got your paper out of the pod, it was... weird. It was fucked up looking compared to the others. It was burnt, and - you had one yellow eye. Parts of the stick figure were colored this weird, shadowy black, too.[ a beat. ]
I think... I think I know why, though. When I went for Jiro, I tried to pull the thing open, but I figured out it probably wasn't real. [ thanks, caleb! ] And, Beau... she attacked the pod, when we were all trying to fend off the monsters, and I think it cracked.
That fucked us up bad. I... that was when I forgot, about them. [ about his brothers. he hates it, heart lurching in his chest; ichiro shakes his head, hard, trying to clear the fog off. ] And we all remembered wrong. I remembered something that happened to Taichi like it was my own life.
So, I think it might've fucked yours up too. That's just a guess, though.
[ unless that was a hint and wow calebs the mastermind ]
no subject
[He knows Beauregard; so stubborn and fierce. But there's always something fragile behind it. She'll hit hard and determined to try to save someone but if it goes wrong it's easy to shatter her. And she would try to save him, even a version of him that is fucked up and blackened and covered in eyes.]
Was I the one shooting you with lightning. . . ?
no subject
It was a monster. On that floor, there was a big one that spit ice, and then two smaller ones that floated. Taichi's - he's not that tall, and I am, and... that place made me so angry I wasn't thinking straight. I couldn't tell what the floating ones were gonna do right away, and since beating them up worked really well before, I attacked it with the blade.
[ ichiro glances down at his hand, opening his palm with his lightning mark. ] And... uh. Metal... conducts lightning.
Haha.
[
sometimes you're an idiot protagonist who goes rushing into situations and you are punished for it ]
no subject