Aftermath

[notagiraffe]

Characters: Taiki and anyone
Setting: meadow floor, morning after Hitori Kakurenbo.
Format: I'll follow you
Summary: Taiki revives, is miraculously not ill, seeks the most open bright space he can and cries.
Warnings: mentions of death and events of Hitori Kaakurenbo

Sleep paralysis was terrifying, it was longer this time and Taiki felt like he was trapped in darkness forever. Unable to move, unable to breathe, it was like he was drowning again. Maybe he was.

The first thing he saw when it faded and he could open his eyes was a teddy bear. On his bedside stand. Taiki's eyes widened and he screamed. He scrambled out of bed, the events of the night and day before him crashing down on him. Strangely he wasn't feverish, it was a strange thought, he remembered his cupboard filling with blood and yet...

He felt better than he had in months. But he wanted to be outside, he had been in a cupboard for hours and hours. He ran out of the room and down the stairs into the meadow. Transforming he flew around, a blur in the sky. Finally he landed; managing to pull on his tunic before curling into a ball and sobbing.

Comments

[verymuchalive]

From the spring in her step, it would be hard to believe that Aradia had been killed not so long ago. Perhaps it was that her life had been about death - at least the voices of the dead - for as long as she could remember but she found it hard to get worked up about a death that was far gentler than she could have hoped to experience in her own world.

Even so, when she hears the sound of someone crying from the meadow floor she can't help but stop and check in. She didn't recognise the figure but then there were a lot of people involved in that game.

She made her way over, maintaining a slight distance so as not to startle him. "What happened?"

[notagiraffe]

Taiki heard the voice and looked up to see a troll with wings. He blinked and tried to wipe away the tears, "Sorry... I... sorry..." He must have made a racket flying around like that, and he felt embarrassed for it.

"I didn't mean to disturb you..." He buried his face in his knees.

[verymuchalive]

"You didn't disturb me."

Aradia sat in front of him, still keeping a distance between them soas not to crowd him.

"I can understand if you don't want to talk about it, but maybe I can help?"

[notagiraffe]

Taiki blinked tears away and sat up a little more. He squeezed his eyes shut to try and stop any more tears from coming. "I'm sorry... did they... did they get you as well?"

[verymuchalive]

It didn't take much to realise what he was referring to and Aradia nodded. "Unfortunately. But it's over now and we're alive. That's what matters."

[notagiraffe]

Taiki nodded, "Sorry... I..." She was right, they were alive. That was something good to hold onto. "They... they shouldn't have done that..." Killing people was bad. Torturing people and killing them just to bring them back and kill them again.

That was horrific and Taiki felt sick at the thought.

[verymuchalive]

"They shouldn't, but they did. If we could take back everything that shouldn't have happened, our lives would turn out very differently."

There was so much more she could have said on that, but she had sense enough to know when not to dwell on the more morbid side of things.

"So, I don't think we've met before, have we? I'm Aradia."

[notagiraffe]

Taiki blinked at that, but she had a point. As difficult as it had sometimes been growing up on earth, he would have been a very different person if he had grown up on Mount Hou. And he would have never met the humans who were his family.

"No... sorry... I'm Taiki, it's nice to meet you Aradia..."

[verymuchalive]

"It's nice to meet you too, Taiki. Have you been in the tower long?"

It helped, sometimes, being curious; it was an easy distraction to talk about anything but that last event.

[wwaterboy]

Eridan knew what had been going on, that Taiki had been missing, and he had seen some of the network posts, though he hadn't commented to anyone else. He hadn't wanted to attract any attention to himself.

But when Taiki returned and woke up screaming, he was out of his own bed in an instant, panic giving him wings. He followed the Kirin as he fled the room, not noticing the bear.

He waited on the meadow until Taiki returned to the ground, then approached, kneeling to touch the Kirin's shoulder.

"Taiki..."

[notagiraffe]

Taiki hadn't even seen his roommate when he had woken up, he hadn't seen him on the network the during the day before either and since he hadn't been taken to the first 'game' they'd played, nor been given a teddy bear he had hoped he had stayed safe.

Now when he touched his shoulder Taiki flung his arms around him and sobbed into his chest. "Eridan... sorry... I... they..."

He was no where near being able to put his thoughts into words though, and he clung to his roommate shaking with tears.

[wwaterboy]

Woah. Eridan was pretty much expecting this reaction, though, and he wrapped his arms around Taiki readily, letting the boy sob into his shirt and subtly moving his scarf out of the way of the tears.

He stroked Taiki's back. "It's okay... it's ovver now, Tai."

[notagiraffe]

He sobbed for a long time, slowly calming down. He guessed Eridan thought him even more pathetic now but he was too upset even to apologise.

Everything he had seen kept replaying in his head, all the people who had died, his panic as he was trapped in a cupboard filling with blood. The waiting, hiding in the darkness.

After a while his sobs slowed down and he began to breathe more normally. "Sorry..." He whispered.

[wwaterboy]

Eridan shook his head, awkwardly glancing around as he stroked the boy's hair. "Wwhat happened?" he asked, feeling a little silly to admit that he hadn't watched what was going on, as so many people had. Willow hadn't been there, or his Sollux, and there was nothing he could do for anyone in any case, so he had felt he didn't really want to know.

[notagiraffe]

Taiki was glad that Eridan hadn't seen, glad that he had been able to avoid watching as everyone died. "Th...they made us play hide and seek... but the teddy bears... if they caught you they killed you..." He choaked on sobs again and pressed his face closer to Eridan.

He mumbled the rest, "We... we had phones... We had to post to the network every few hours... they kept... they kept recording people dying..." He shook, trying not to think of the hours in darkness, talking to Dave as he died, and Echidna...

"They..." Tears came again, "One found me... they... locked... the cupboard... I couldn't escape... it... it filled with blood..." He gasped the last sentence out before his tears were too thick to talk again.

[wwaterboy]

"Fuck," Eridan whispered. He knew Taiki was weird and weak and a bit annoying. But Eridan couldn't ignore just how horrifying that must have been. It would be unimaginably horrifying for Eridan, let alone someone like Taiki, with his blood allergy and basic uselessness.

He hugged Taiki close, not knowing what to say. "It's ovver noww..."

[notagiraffe]

Taiki clung to Eridan while he cried again, trying to calm down, he knew that Eridan thought he was pathetic and crying wasn't going to help that at all. But Willow had said that Eridan was just worried about him, and that's why he said things like that.

Taiki wasn't sure if he believed her, and he wasn't going to risk it, so he stifled his sobs as much as he could, holding Eridan tightly.

"I... I know... sorry... I just... wish they'd leave us alone..."

[queenofbass]

Marceline had finally calmed down, her initial fit over the bear and her second death toned from blind panic to a deadened acceptance. It hadn't stopped her from wrapping bandages over her neck- the first time she had ever covered her scars from her initial change. She had hardly wanted to go back into her room to get her sunhat to wander the meadow, too afraid to see the bear again.

She hadn't expected to see anyone else there. Stumbling across Taiki had her stunned wordless, and she froze for a moment before she landed, actually sitting in the dirt and grass to wrap her arms around him. Marceline fought back open sobs of her own, though she couldn't fight back her own tears. However bad it had been for her, she mused, it had to have been worse for Taiki.

[notagiraffe]

Taiki flinched as he felt arms around him but it only took a moment for him to recognise Marceline and he wrapped his arms around her tightly. She had been there too, he had spoken to her, he cried more as he wondered if the bears had killed her too.

He hugged her tight, wishing that they didn't have to be here, that yesterday had all just been a nightmare and hadn't really happened at all.

[queenofbass]

Marceline wasn't usually one for any form of genuine affection- everything she did usually had that hint of teasing to it. But Taiki was just a kid, that whole game had been too much even for her and knowing he'd had to endure...

"It's over, we're okay," she muttered around the knot in her throat, and hugged him tighter. She wasn't so sure on the 'okay' count really, but seeing Taiki cry hurt.

[notagiraffe]

Taiki clung to her, it was over. They had come back but they were still here. In this tower where horrible things happened all the time. He didn't want to be here, he wanted to go home. He wanted to go to Tai and see Gyousou, except Gyousou might be dead and Tai destroyed and all that was left was this tower.

"I'm sorry..." He gripped her harder, "I just wish... they'd stop..."

[queenofbass]

The fight for any semblance of self-control broke as a breath turned to a hard sob. Marceline wanted to go home too, back to Ooo and the adventures she'd had there, back to playing hooky from her own kingdom and jamming and her little cave house. Back to irritating princesses and avoiding her dad. She refused to believe that there was only this tower now, it wasn't possible.

But what really was the straw that broke the camel's back was that this kid felt like he needed to apologize. "Don't be sorry," she managed, gripping tight. "Don't ever be sorry, it's not your fault. This is... they... I want them to stop too..." she finally settled on.

[notagiraffe]

He sobbed harder, her tears fueling his own. He shook his head, "They shouldn't... do these things... it's wrong..."

Violence was always wrong, hurting others was always wrong and they had no purpose. They were hurting them for no reason whatsoever. There had been no point to what had happened, no reason why they should have suffered like that.

[queenofbass]

The dam had been opened, and Marceline wasn't sure she could even stop crying right now if she had the threat of imminent death over her head again. After the stresses of the game, her usual barriers to teary emotional outbursts were all but nil. But she tried to fight down the worst of the sobs- she needed to calm down, crying would solve nothing.

"No, they shouldn't. If you're in charge... abusing the people in your power is a really bad idea... and worse when they're refugees..." It hit her that she was really the worst person to talk about being in charge and working for people- she was hardly ever there for her own kingdom, an absentee queen, but she at least didn't actively try to kill her own subjects. "There was no reason for them to... to set us up like that..."

[notagiraffe]

Taiki cried with her, hugging her both for comfort and to comfort her. He nodded at her words, his eyes shining. "Kings... all those in charge... they have a duty to look after those in their kingdoms."

He paused, "Or towers... I guess... they are in charge... and they said they rescued us... but... why rescue people to torture them..."

Why torture them at all, their actions went against every instinct he had as a Kirin.