children, wake up; hold your mistake up

[headandhand]

WHO: All new and remaining Dualizens
WHAT: A mysterious return! And the start of Act II.
WHERE: Begin at the dorms, move on to wherever else in the city you want.
WHEN: Right meow c:
WARNINGS: Please use these in thread headers if applicable!

Maybe it’s a stream of sunlight that invites you back to consciousness. Maybe it’s a sound - a slammed door, your roommate’s snores, panicked shouts in the hallway. Whatever it is that wakes you, you find yourself in a plain bed inside a plain room, groggy and disoriented.

Maybe this room is a familiar sight, or maybe it’s a place where you’ve never found yourself before. Whether you’re new to town or an old hand at navigating the neon-lit streets of the city outside the dorm room window, one thing is for certain - you are one of only a very few people still populating this city, and not much about Dualis is as you last remember it.

Time to wake up and start looking for answers.

Comments

[firacrux]

You know, you've got a point.

[Himself included, and his posse. They weren't always the best behaved, but the being scary part was largely to keep people away. It was very effective.

Ah, yeah, he gets that look. Casually he reaches out to offer her a comforting pat on the shoulder. She doesn't need to say it, he gets it.]

Mmm. [He sipped at his whiskey, lacking the fortitude to down it the way she could. Seifer wasn't exactly an experienced drinker.] You can. Might as well, ain't like we've got any eavesdroppers.

[He gestured grandly at the empty building, frowning darkly. Everything about this was wrong. As much as he was avoiding admitting to himself how upset he was over everyone disappearing the least he could do is lend an ear to a fellow lonely soul.]

If you wanna get it off your chest, anyway.

[metamorphotic]

Big Brother’s always listening. [she gestures out into the room full of empty tables with a sardonic smile, then shrugs.] Nah, it’s just - I been doin’ this a while now, y’know? Gettin’ tossed around these fucked-up places, fightin’ off monsters ...

[she frowns, and reaches for the bottle on the counter to pour herself another drink.] I used to work real hard to keep people outta my life. Thought that’d make it hurt less when they eventually left, ‘cause they always do. But it’s hard to live like that - sad and empty, and I decided I didn’t wanna do it anymore.

[she pauses, sips her drink, considering how much more detail she wants to offer.] In all this time I been gettin’ kicked around from one to dimension to another, I got to be friends with a couple guys who were at least a thousand years old each. Both of ‘em were ... [broken, but resilient in their own ways. stronger than nick ever imagined herself.] Well, they’d been through a lotta really fucked up shit, wars and death and pain, and they’d both been real lonely for a long time. And I thought - I mean, I ain’t a genius, I know people don’t stick around forever, ‘specially in places like this. I knew if I stopped pushin’ people away, if I got to know ‘em and care about ‘em, it’d hurt a lot whenever one of us’d leave. But I don’t wanna live to be a thousand years old if I spend most of that time keepin’ everyone else away just ‘cause I’m scared of gettin’ my heart broke. Better to’ve loved and lost than spend lifetimes in loneliness, y’know? That’s what I decided. [she nods sharply, firm in her decision, but her voice begins to waver:] So I knew it’d hurt to lose the people I - [love] - the people I care about, that’s just how it works. Just didn’t think it’d hurt this bad.

[drifter. hank. even vergil, though she’d already mourned him after he was murdered. nick looks down at the glass in her hands, her face reflected in the surface of the whiskey, mouth pressed tightly into a thin line. she takes a deep breath and forces a small, sad smile back onto her face as she looks up again at seifer.] It’s fine. I’ll live. ‘Cause fuck if I’m gonna let this place be the thing that kills me.