So, you're dead. Shame, that.
But on the other hand, it's actually kind of nice.
When you "wake" in some odd version of it, you'll find yourself lying on a rather plush bed. It's cozy and warm and just soft enough to tempt anyone back into sleep. The room is equally nice, if small, and when you turn and open the curtains to look out the window, you will see... wait, is that the town?
It is, actually. The town is laid out quite simply across the window and no matter how many times you may bang or wave through the window, no one seems to notice you. If you're smart enough to give up the venture and leave the small bedroom, you will notice that, of course, you are on the train.
The train that, is actually pretty fancy.
Moving through it, past the sleeping cabins and through to the main carts, you will find a dining car with fine dishware and meals of all kinds made at a push of a button or a request given to the air. They'll appear, freshly made and ready to eat at the table of your choice with any drink you could want. There truly doesn't seem to be any limits when it comes to the luxury of the meal.
There is also a bathhouse car with private bathrooms and saunas to fit up to four. Even one rather large room containing a small pool/hot tub of sorts is available for just about anyone to take a dip. It's kind of outlandish, honestly.
Then the lounge car, with its library and plush armchairs and couches. A pool table, a darts board, even a small area dedicated to painting. There's a bar too, fully stocked and ready for anyone who needs a drink. All it would require is a request from the bartender who... looks surprisingly familiar?
The Sheriff is there, much cleaner cut than his counterpart outside of the train. He looks up mildly at any arrivals, giving them a nod of greeting before going back to organizing bottles or setting cigars out for a smoke. He doesn't seem to be surprised at all by anyone who appears. Just... ready to serve them, whatever they may wish.
It all sort of seems okay for a moment, until you realize you're just here to wait for the game to end. Awkward. |
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sheriffexe) wrote2017-01-13 11:14 am
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Everything she did was to protect Percy and Jason. Now it doesn't matter. Even through the growing despair, she manages a smile, bitter and furious.]
You ever think we're being punished for something?
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(Regardless of whether or not Natalie cries, he won't address it; he can't imagine that she wants him to bring it up.)]
Maybe. I won't deny that I've done some pretty horrible things in my life.
... But if that's the case, the screw the world and its shitty retribution. I'll ignore it even if just out of spite.
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How are you planning on ignoring this, then?
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[Maybe even more, in spite of himself.]
If I get to go home, I'm keeping my memories. There's nothing here that'll drag me down.
So if this is a punishment, it didn't work.
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There's nothing more they can do to us. I guess that's kind of comforting, in a way.
[If it didn't mean that all their friends were going to die, maybe.]
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Well, I wouldn't put it quite like that, since that's just asking to jinx us, but...
[He shrugs.]
Besides, the way I see it, my life isn't just my own, so those stupid blood gods or whatever are competing here over control of it.
[And not competing with just him—as he said, his life isn't his own, and it hasn't been for a long time. He has no right to give into despair. For his sister's sake, and... for the others here, who are still fighting.
He doesn't know if Natalie sees things the same way, or if this is reassuring at all, but it's what has kept him going for years.]
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...Why not?
[It isn't that she necessarily disagrees, more that that concept is unfamiliar to her. Hearing him say his life isn't his own... For someone who fought for years to separate herself from someone else, to claim an identity that wasn't mixed with the shadow of what might have been, it's puzzling.
So, she sounds curious about his reasoning.]
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You're probably not interested in the details, so the short version is that there's someone counting on me back home. If anything happens to me, in whatever sense of the word, [if he dies, or if he gives up and chooses to live a normal life instead] then she goes down with me.
[His voice is quiet, a tad (uncharacteristically) somber, though he maintains a light smirk and refrains from sounding too serious—even though this is something he'd never admit under ordinary circumstances.
Here, though, it doesn't matter.]
It's easy to focus when I remember that.
[Whether or not Natalie has someone like that in her world, she might be able to see something similar in certain people here.]
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[Though the more relevant question, she supposes, is whether he would divulge them. Her expression shifts into a small frown to match his more somber tone, but there's no pity to be found. She assumes he would hate that.
To what he says next, there's a short nod of agreement, punctuated with:]
...Yeah, I can understand that, I guess.
[Several people immediately come to mind, but she chooses not to focus on that, because only one of them is here.]
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Maybe.
[Well, as strange as it is to talk about it (to talk about himself, really; it was always so dangerous back home), it's not much of a secret. Percy already knows the details, at least. And he can take assurance in knowing that Natalie won't offer pity—because yes, he'd hate that.]
Some of the details are complicated, but the gist of things is that a long time ago, my little sister got... infected by a disease—a very unique disease. You can think of her as alive but not quite living, I guess, and somewhere that I can't reach under normal circumstances.
[His tone is neutral. For all that this has affected him, he knows that he's just a part of a statistic. He's hardly the only one to be negatively impacted by the Labyrinth Disease.]
For diseased girls like her, society would rather make use of them rather than ever save them. [...] I'm presently the only person in the world with a cure and with the motivation to help her.
... So it doesn't matter what happens to me. In a way, my life doesn't really begin until I save her, at any rate.
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[The question might lack tact, but she thinks if there's anyone who doesn't mind, it will probably be Shinnosuke. She does frown slightly when he mentions his life doesn't begin until he saves her, but... Really, she supposes that isn't any of her business.]
I'm guessing it's not as simple as just wandering over and giving her the cure.
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You ever played an RPG, or something like that?
[It's unfortunately nowhere near that simple.]
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[She waits for him to go on.]
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[Jokes aside... Not that he's a gamer either, but it would've been a simple comparison. He pauses before continuing, fighting against the instinct to shut his mouth. Natalie isn't an enemy, isn't anyone who would manipulate him for this. She might make fun of his idiocy, but that, he can handle.]
Where I'm from, there's something called the Labyrinth Disease. [He's explained said illness to a few people here, so it's no secret, but he's pretty sure Natalie wasn't one of them.] It does what it sounds like: the afflicted spawn a labyrinth around them that swallows up everything in the area. Kind of like an RPG dungeon, which is why I asked.
Anyway, once a labyrinth becomes "eternal" [which is another can of worms, unless Natalie really wants to hear about how Shinnosuke kills young girls for a living] then otherworldly technology can be found inside.
[He taps the headphone over his right ear. He stopped wearing it after losing his sight, but, well. That no longer applies.]
Or, as it's referred to, "Magic Converted from Labyrinth Spoils". Which... should tell you about how powerful it is, that humans refer to it as magic.
[In other words, it's the sort of thing that people—governments, organizations—would very much like to get their hands on, no matter what they have to resort to. Regardless of how involved or uninvolved Natalie is in politics and human greed, he doesn't doubt that she can make her own inferences.]
The more dangerous the labyrinth, the better the spoils. [And here, he laughs bitterly.] My sister... She spawned the labyrinth with the highest ranking in the world. 《Apocalypse 666》, otherwise known as Apocalypse Alice—the most coveted labyrinth in the world, and officially the most dangerous place on Earth.
[... Yeah.]
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[Even after all the strange stories and experiences from other worlds she's heard while she's been here... There are some things, she thinks, that she'll never be able to wrap her head around. Perhaps this is one of them.]
Wait, is that why you mentioned the talking killer rabbit thing to me a while back?
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Yup. One thing after another happened, and I ended up inside there ahead of schedule. [That's a very long story.] Turns out that the labyrinth's nickname really is apt and it takes its cues from Alice in Wonderland—which is probably my fault for reading it to her so often. If I'd known this was going to happen, I would've chosen a better story.
[Ha... Well, not that it would've helped in reality, but suffice to say, Shinnosuke's pretty sick of all things Wonderland-related now.]
Though talking killer rabbits aren't even the weirdest things to be found in a labyrinth. I've experienced stuff like giant killer teddy bears too in other ones.
[That was before it escalated into killer toy snakes and then, once that labyrinth dropped its theme entirely, axe-wielding demons, but.]
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...Can I ask if there was a reason hers was so much more dangerous than anybody else's, or is that pretty firmly in "I don't want to talk about it" territory?
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(He also wouldn't particularly take offence to being teased over that, beyond the awkwardness of having a shot taken at his "aloof bastard" image.)
He smiles dryly, if just a tad sadly, as much as he tries to rein in the latter.]
No, that's pretty firmly in "I have absolutely no idea" territory. I know that if the diseased was capable in magic, her labyrinth's danger levels shoot up, but my sister wasn't a magician. Maybe she secretly had an amazing aptitude for it, but... too late to know now.
For all I know, she just had really shitty luck.
[Which is also entirely possible, considering how abysmally unfortunate she was to be infected at her age. She barely got the chance to live, and he can't forgive the world for that.]