1369

[animusmods]

Characters: Anyone coming to Zo's carnival
Setting: Cafeteria; please specify the date and location in the carnival in your subject header!
Format: Anything
Summary: Zo has set up a carnival for the residents, but it's not meant to last. Anyone wandering after the bombs go off might see things they never wanted to see...
Warnings: Psychological and body horror
Note: Characters entering the carnival from the 27th to the 30th will experience visions! Please refer to the info post for details and reply to this thread if your character enters the carnival during these days.

[The carnival has taken up the entirety of the cafeteria. A large roller coaster and ferris wheel tower over the residents, while a child-sized roller coaster, a merry-go-round, and spinning teacups project much less daunting silhouettes. Stands are set up with standard carnival foods available, from ice cream to cotton candy. These stands do not ask for anything as payment.

On the twenty-seventh, the carnival appearance changes. The machinery all appears rusted and broken down, as if weathered with decades of rain and snow. Plants grow up and around the rides, ruining them, and all the food is rotten.]

Comments

No problem /o/

[lethechained]

The way things had to be.

[She echoes his echo, quieter as such a thing ought to be and probably more forlorn.]

[And then he asks the question she does not fail to see the relevance of, but one she's not happy to have to answer. (None of these really have been the sort of question she would take pleasure in sorting out, as most questions asked of her have always seemed to be.)]

....

[How does one tell someone something like this? She has experience with it, yes, but--....]

... You had already fallen, Axel.

[It's pretty obvious by her expression what she means by that particular euphemism.]

At least, you had by the time he and I went back to our Others.

[poisonousflame]

[Fallen. He'd already fallen. It doesn't take a genius to figure out exactly what Naminé means by that.

[He exhales slowly, forcing himself to breathe through the tight knot in his chest. He'd fallen. He'd been destroyed. But how...?

["You're not hurt right? I mean, I didn't hurt you too much?"

[A memory. Roxas' voice, just after they showed up here, clear as day in his mind. He thinks, tries to remember what else Roxas said about that fight....

["In the future for you we fight because I have to be eliminated. You were going to eliminate me. I guess Saix said you had to."

["I won, but it was really close, I know and you, we said we'd meet in the next life. I thought this was here, but now I'm not so sure. I thought I really hurt you."

[It takes a long moment for him to respond. When he does, it's simply:]

Oh.

[Maybe he's wrong. Maybe he's putting the pieces together in all the wrong places. Somehow.

[But if he's right, he doesn't think he can take hearing Naminé say it.]

[lethechained]

[Somehow, she'd been hoping for a bigger reaction.]

[Well, maybe 'hoping' isn't the right word. Expecting? But that's not quite right, either, because that was a hard thing to say but a harder thing to hear and even harder, perhaps, to respond to. She doesn't blame him for his thoughts overtaking his words.]

[It just doesn't make things any easier. Even though she knows she hasn't any business asking, she really wishes she were privy to what he is thinking. As ever, her natural reaction is to try to help.]

Axel--....

[She swallows.]

Don't you want to know how it happened?

[poisonousflame]

[He refocuses his gaze on her, sees the expression on her face. Quickly, he forces a smile. It's strained, even by his standards, and does nothing to disguise how obviously troubled he is by the news. "Troubled" putting it very mildly.]

Think I've already got the picture.

[He shrugs, gives a dismissive wave — as though physically pushing the thought aside will make the awful sensation in his chest easier to deal with.]

[lethechained]

[Even a forced smile is probably better than things could be, but she hasn't got a smile to give him in return. Frowning slightly,]

Are you sure? After all-- a lot of things happened between your point on the timeline and then.

[And it's probably safe to guess that he's not in a position to accurately assume the circumstances involved.]