auroraexpress | (no subject)

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Who: Everyone
When: Day 20, evening
Where: The train and surrounding terrain

[So after all the earlier excitement.... dramatic organ music starts to play through the cars. There's no obvious source. It's just... There? All around you for a while, before fading.

Of course before the music fades there's more things going on. A mist seeps up from the earth outside the train and within the train simply seems to form like it's produced by invisible fog machines. As the mist grows into a thick fog, you can hear eerie noises. Distant wolf howls, the screech of a fox that sounds like human screaming, owls hooting hauntingly, the leathery flap of bat wings, and other, less identifiable noises of the night, strange and otherworldly.

If you go out in it, breathe it in, the mist will chill you. Make you desire... Touch.

The need to hold another person is an almost growing compulsion, but it can be fought.

However things that are harder to avoid are the flowers, night blooming wisteria in white and purple seems to have grown from nowhere in the train cars, hanging down to brush the heads of passengers with sweet scented blossoms, and the floors of the train and ground around it have become endless beds of gently glowing moonflowers.

The only places the fog and flowers don't reach are team cabins.

Effects:

Mist:

Cold that cannot be dispelled without touch, a desire to touch others.

Wisteria:

Purple blossoms cause an empathetic bond with the next person you touch.

White blossoms cause arousal and a mild to powerful aphrodisiac effect.

Moonflowers:

Share memories or thoughts with the next person you touch.

By morning the mist and flowers will vanish.]

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Hmph...

[ He does lean a little into it though. This memory is from Jusis's perspective. There's a strange spacial distortion in which a blue robot and a grey robot face off against a red one. Crow seems to be in the blue mech, and just as they're winning that robot is impaled. Crow claims he's fine and the grey mech finishes the battle, liberating the core from the grey mech as the spacial distortion fades into a large room.

Jusis rushes with everyone to check on the prince and Rean, feeling a lot of relief. There's some talking, and some noble in the distance elicits some annoyance. But Jusis is focused on Vita talking about something known as the Orpheus Final Plan. And then they all finally notice the vast hole inside the blue mech and there's a sinking sense of dread in Jusis.

Crow materializes with a gaping chest wound, everyone rushes over, Rean holds Crow and Emma and Celine channel mana into him, while Jusis stands back. He already knows, in his heart, that that wound is fatal, and it hurts his own chest so much to watch.

He's used to keeping a stoic expression, but even he can feel how his eyes are stinging and his expression is wavering in grief. Crow makes jokes, saying karma's a bitch, trying to reassure Rean whose tears are in his voice. Crow pats Rean's head, looking at him with naked adoration, love even, and then starts saying his farewells to each member of Class VII.

Jusis's voice wavers as he answers Crow's words, his smile strained with sadness but still managing to smile no matter how painfully. Each person Crow says farewell to has a look of deep loss, some openly crying. Crow is surrounded by people who truly, genuinely, openly adore him and are devastated by him dying in front of them. Crow tells them to keep going forward, relentlessly, without looking back, and then he dies.

Once he's dead the tears really start and Jusis has to turn his head away and mutter "that fool" in a watery voice as he tries to keep from joining the others in crying openly. In his heart, he's as devastated as the rest of them, hurt and mourning.

Before the loss has time to sink in, the annoying noble from before speaks up, ranting about how Crow failed him and what a waste of time giving that "waif from a fallen country" his favor was. Everyone is furious, Jusis calls him utter scum, rage hot in his chest as all of Class VII except Rean respond with fury. But before Jusis can pull his own sword, Vita deals with it with her own rage. Throughout this Rean continues to hold and cry on Crow's lifeless body.

Before more can be revealed of the drama following Crow's death, the whole memory ends.]

[ What Jusis gets in return is this-- a conversation between Crow and 80H... about Jusis. Crow expresses frustration about "someone from the same place he is" knowing more about him than he does himself, even going so far as to admit it pisses him off a little bit. 80H very calmly walks him through it-- "that person" isn't malicious, they're probably just awkward and don't know how to handle an amnesiac. Crow refers to Jusis obliquely as a masochist at one point. Crow eventually ruefully concedes that 80H is probably right, and maybe she makes too much sense sometimes. "I might as well use this processing power for something," 80H says, and the memory mercifully cuts off before they start flirting with each other. ]

[ That's what Jusis gets, anyway. Crow doesn't pull away from him precisely, but his breathing catches just a little bit. That easy grin fades away, slips away. He feels like he's going numb. He feels like the world is falling away from him. He doesn't even really see Jusis, doesn't see the lounge they're in. All he can see is his own lifeless body resting in the arms of a boy he barely even remembers.

He nearly forgets to breath, does forget for a full moment before he forces himself to breath in, out. In and out. He can't get his mask back on just yet, he's still too numb. ]

[There's a lot going on. On the one hand, cuddling up to Crow is dispelling the bone deep chill and he wants to lean in more. On the other hand, there's a memory that's definitely not his. That's bad enough but it's consternating to see 80H defending him and discussion of him in such a way! Rude!

On the third hand, if he's seeing a memory of Crow's... Crow is probably seeing one of his. And he pulls away, looking at Crow's face, nervous because that's a worrying expression.]

Crow?

[ He turns to look at Jusis, but he's not really seeing him right now. ]

You....

[ Grief and devastation and pain and sorrow, all of it coursing through Jusis as Crow--

--as Crow-- ]

....Jusis...

[ He shakes his head and laughs, but it sounds hollow to his own ears. ]

It's....

[ He abruptly switches modes, flashing a bright grin. ]

...Just a surprise! I didn't think you were gonna let me so close after all that teasing yesterday. Heh!

[ If he fakes it hard enough, maybe he won't have to explain anything. ]

[That makes him scowl. The switch is really suspicious honestly.]

What did you see?

What did you see?

[ He doesn't! Want! To talk about it! ]

You first. Answer. Right now.

[Before you can make something up.]

[ What is the most nonanswer answer he thinks he can get away with? ]

So, you and Machias still rivals?

[Jusis is quite a bit more on the ball than most of his male classmates when it comes to quickly piecing things together with context. He stands up abruptly, grabs Crow's hand, and drags him along if he can.]

Come.

[ It's just Crow's luck that the only other member of Class VII he has here is one of the more discerning ones. He's going along with it, mostly because despite the attempt at mode-switching he's still basically numb. ]

Whisking me away after all, huh?

[ The words pop out of his mouth automatically, he's just Like This even when most of his brain space is being overtaken. ]

[At least in holding Crow's wrist the deep chill warms. But there's a different ache in his chest now, a grief that hasn't passed. A pain he can't voice. So he just pulls Crow along to Clover's stupid bright cabin and gently shoves him into Jusis's own unadorned room. Despite being here so long the only real additions to his living space are books. In any case he pushes Crow onto the bed and sits on the edge of it himself, releasing him finally.]

[ He's just going to flop backwards onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. ]

Your cabin's really bright. The pink aesthetic doesn't suit you at all.

I'm aware.

[He leans back on his hands, looking down at Crow.]

...Naturally, the one thing I didn't want you to see... Why is that the thing you saw?

Probably because it's the one thing you didn't want me to see.

[ He drapes an arm over his eyes. ]

So I'm dead.

[ It's a statement of fact.

There's something darkly ironic about that, Crow thinks to himself. During the social bingo game, he'd told 80H that he was afraid of dying. Somehow, he thinks finding out he's already dead may be worse. ]

[Rufus and Randy haven't mentioned anything, and while it bugs Jusis that Crow looks older, what he remembers is all he knows. Which means, as far as he's aware, that was the end of Crow Armbrust.

And he hates it.]

...Yes.

[ If Jusis doesn't somehow find out the truth before OOC November-ish, TOCS3 memories are going to be a hell of a surprise for them both. That being said, it bothers him as well that he looks older when he looks in the mirror than when he did in the memory he just saw, but...

...the dead don't come back to life. Maybe there was just a glitch in Cardamom's matrix. ]

....Okay.

[ Not okay. Not okay at all. ]

You know it's okay to be upset about it. I am.

[Rean would probably have something heartfelt and sincere and pointed to say that would reach Crow's emotions. Jusis... Is trying his best.]

What's there to be upset about?

[ Everything. His arm doesn't move. ]

Not everyone gets to go into overtime after their number's up.

[He reaches out, bracing a hand next to him while he wraps his fingers around Crow's wrist and lifts it, looking down into his face.]

I know concealing your feelings is a habit, and even one I can empathize with. However, as it's come to this, what's the point of pretending you're fine? You even smiled for all of us, and yet... You're here.

If you can't be upset about it, I can.

[ He hasn't been able to rearrange his face into something presentable, so there's something vulnerable and visceral and yes, upset, in his expression for a brief moment before he slams his eyes shut. He can't look at anyone right now. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before he speaks. ]

Being upset about it isn't going to change it.

So what? Should you only have feelings about things you can change?

[ He hates it! Being upset about being dead is a matter of being upset about something he can't do anything about! He can't fix it, he can't change it, he can't even really move past it-- what does it even mean for him? He's just going to drop dead again once they restore the universe, once he isn't needed for this? Once the universe remembers he's supposed to be gone? ]

Yes.

[ His tone is stubborn, unreasonable. ]

What's the point in breaking down over things I can't change?

Major spoilers for the end of Cold Steel 2

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Re: Major spoilers for the end of Cold Steel 2

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Done.

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