solnet | GAME START!

[For a kid who's pretty much constantly sauntering about shooting people creepy grins and running off their mouth, Chara seems fairly relaxed, this feed. Could be the fact that they're in the library. Or perhaps it's just a nice day outside.]

Would you like to play a game, fellow foot soldiers?

[Or maybe it's the fact that they're making a mildly off-kilter Saw joke, whatever.]

The past few weeks, I've noticed when talking to others that even the most unassuming words can have significantly different meaning; mark me curious. So here's the rules;

Each of us will have our turn in choosing a word. Perhaps this word has no real meaning to us, or perhaps it does.

The receiver of said word goes on to define it; either in a social...or personal context. Then they also pick a word to be defined. And thus the cycle continues until one of us gets bored.

[A bright smile, and the camera swings wildly askew as it's holder reaches over the side of the lounge for another book.]

I'll even start it off. Your word, is 'monster'.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That does seem to be the kicker in all of it, doesn't it? Death plays a part whether people want it to or not. No matter how hard everyone in that awful place tried, the end result was always the same - death, pain, suffering. Hell.

Hilda rubbed at her eyes a little, thankfully not shedding any tears but clearly still shaken even after all this time.]

It seems that way, yes. I can't say it makes me happy in any way to know we were not the only ones subjected to something like that...

[She's almost crying.

Big kids don't cry. Adults shouldn't cry either. Chara barely knew what to do when they cried, always a little disgusted when they couldn't stop the emotions from overflowing in such an obvious way. Just- laugh it off. Push it down.

They'd always, somehow, managed to say the right thing to him, even if it felt wrong. And they start thinking without considering it, running their mouth because that's it, that's all they've got. It's what they do. Narration.]

Were.

[Then, they falter. Just for a shutterclick of a second, as they pick up all the pieces they need, running things together in the same way they-

Well. The same way they would have done for him. And nobody else. It's not knives coming out of their mouth.]

We were subjected to that. But the Game has- changed, is that not correct?

Death still holds as little meaning as always, I suppose. I've certainly never been to a place where it attempts to hold any kind of permanency, however... we linger, here. Time moves on.

And despite everything...

It's still you.

[...

For better or worse.]

[Almost. No tears yet, but Hilda has broken so many times in the past couple of years she can hardly recall when she used to be stoic and headstrong.

It's still you.

Is she really? All the scars marring her once perfect porcelain skin, all the memories of death - her own and the ones she caused, all of the times she screamed until her throat bled and her head throbbed only to just shut down at the end of it all.]

... I wish I could... think that way. I really do. You're not the first to say it, a-and yet...

And yet nothing.

[Their voice grows a little sharper; laced with impatience...largely stifled embarrassment.]

Faltering now is not an option, not for people like us. We have made our decisions; we must face the consequences of those. If you are still here, you are still the person who has made those prior decisions. And now you will make more.

That is something that cannot be erased.

[Well that was unexpected. Most of the time this conversation goes the way of either awkward faltering or uncertain pats on the arm with a smile and a "you can talk to me any time" reassurance.

She blinks a few times in clear surprise, but it doesn't send her running or even anger her to be talked to in such a manner.

In fact she's... grateful that someone, even a child, is willing to be up front with her about these sort of things instead of trying to simply placate her upset with kind words.]

You are... absolutely right. My past, any version of it, can't be taken away just because it hurts me to think of it.

[Surprisingly, Chara isn't at all good when it comes to uncertain pats on the arm. But there's a difference between what they are and what Hilda did, and a disconnect between Hilda and humans, at least in their mind.

Whoever it is she thinks she sees when she looks in the mirror, it's undoubtedly better than what they'd known for the large course of their life. Someone who could acknowledge their intelligence without a hint of fear or resentment, and-

Despite the fact that what they're saying is wrong ~~because nothing's really changed. Whatever change has been will never be enough. Anything can be erased if you simply try hard enough...surely. Hopefully. Has to be~~

She's still listening, isn't she?]

Precisely. So then, if it's pointless to consider your past being changed, then my point still stands.

What are you going to do now?

[Hilda hasn't brought up the things that happened in Lorule even BEFORE all of the Box, but given that she was the driving force behind a lot of those events that's a can of worms she's not yet willing to open.

But that's also a story that had an actual happy ending all around. That counts for... something.]

I suppose... actually moving on with my life, even in this place, is the best thing I can do now. Difficult as that might be.

[She'd probably be just as surprised with their response to that as she has been now. Still...a story for another day. Not one for now, when her expression has seemingly shifted into something slightly less...tragic.]

Then I suppose that is what you shall do.

... it won't be easy. It's not as if I can will the memories away, or the feelings of panic and terror that come at me at night when I try to sleep.

No, it won't be easy. That's the easy part.

[Understanding that it won't be, is what they mean. But not what they say, eyes once again straying to elsewhere. Another world, even. A place coated in dust, with a counter that never did anything else but rise.]

We always know what to expect.

[Hilda knows that feeling, of seeing something far off from long ago. A castle crumbling in to dust in a world falling in on itself while it's citizens suffered and cried for change she couldn't bring. A town left abandoned now populated with souls barely holding on...]

I suppose I can't argue with that, no. It won't be easy, at all. And knowing that is the only thing we can be certain of.

And yet, we stay Determined.

[Because one day, they're going to be free.]

[One day.

One day Hilda will actually be able to see her kingdom again, flourishing and alive for the first time in centuries.]

Yes.

[There's a pause, and it almost seems as though she's going to end the conversation there, but instead she adds quietly:]

Thank you.

[They could easily end it there, themself. Chara's half tempted to, finger resting lightly over the 'end call' option before they quietly utter a few words of their own, feed ending moments later.]

You're welcome.

[Maybe, by some off fluke of luck, what's waiting out there for her will actually prove better than what they know is waiting for them.

Chara hopes so.

Just this once, they'd like not to be a liar.]

GAME START!

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject