005 [Dream --> Video] Star-Crossed Loves
Warnings: Public execution in here. Oh, and stabbing.
Effects: A very strong compulsion towards a certain something that may linger shortly after the dream ends.
He doesn't know how, when, or why, but Seiji finds himself in the middle of a growing crowd of people wearing peasant tunics and slacks or flimsy blouses over heavy, full-length skirts. When he looks at himself, though, he's garbed in some kind of bright blue pants suit and a white dress shirt -- clearly out of place among the people pushing and shoving into and against him to catch as many glimpses as possible at whatever they're crowding in front of. Seiji can't see it, and his yells at them to excuse him and let him through are drowned by their own vocal commotion.
"Fuck it," he says, surprised at the anger and urgency in his voice. With a few steps back, he plows through the bodies clustered in front of him, scooping some away from his path like a swimmer would tread water with his arm strokes. Eventually, he reaches the front, where a wooden stage is erected and the blade of a guillotine is being pulled up to the mouton by a man in white robes, a gray mask covering his face, and brown hair sticking out from it. A hulking guard leads a figure cloaked head-to-toe in black towards the machine and, with a shove, lays her down on the bascule.
A woman, Seiji realizes by the cloth hugging her curved figure. He forgets he's among a crowd and stares at the covered woman, whose head has been secured in the hole in the lunette. The tails of her head scarf hang over where her face should be and around her neck.
"Even in death, she will live on," the masked man announces before letting go of the rope holding up the blade.
It falls on the woman's neck so fast Seiji isn't sure he had time to blink even if he could make himself. Her head thunks into the basket, and he starts for the stage before thinking to do it. Two more guards grab him from either side. They're just as big as the other guard, and Seiji can't muscle his way free. Their knees crumple and their bodies barrel to the ground when Seiji stabs them both with a knife he pulled from his pocket. He doesn't bother to climb the steps and hoists himself up over the edge of stage front. The masked man, the guard, and the woman's corpse are already gone. No matter. Seiji knows what he wants. He reaches into the basket and gently brings the covered head to eye level. For a moment, he hesitates, pulling back his free hand. After a breath, he slips the black cloth off.
Her eyes -- sea green, he discovers later after flipping her eyelids -- don't need to be open to hypnotize him. One look, and he can't help but wisp the wavy bangs of her red-orange hair away from her lily-white face. His fingers ghost down her cheekbones to cup her chin and tilt her head up. Showing him a pursed, faraway smile, Seiji knows and feels in his heart that she's gazing at him, into him.
He leans in to her, and nothing else matters just before--
[Video]
[Seiji springs up from his bed and tosses his blanket in the process. Panting, he claws into the mattress. Once he gathers himself, he turns to the Dreamberry on a nightstand beside his bed and grumbles. After brushing his tousled hair back with his hand, he shuts it off.]
[Video: Filtered to Meryl]
[Based on his clean, slicked back hair and the gray vest and slacks he wore over a white dress shirt Seiji's now wearing, some time has passed between the initial video and this filtered one. He sits at a table and leans the chair on his hind legs. He drapes an arm over the back rest, looks into the Dreamberry with his head turned slightly away, and curls the corners of his lips. Any of the shock and panic he displayed when he woke up from that dream? Wiped.]
Hey.
Are you doing anything tonight? It feels like forever since we got to be together. [A scoff.] I'm getting jealous whenever the boss's girlfriend is around him at work.
[He means it. Really, really, truly means it. But for some reason it's hard for him to say it right now.]
I miss you.
Effects: A very strong compulsion towards a certain something that may linger shortly after the dream ends.
He doesn't know how, when, or why, but Seiji finds himself in the middle of a growing crowd of people wearing peasant tunics and slacks or flimsy blouses over heavy, full-length skirts. When he looks at himself, though, he's garbed in some kind of bright blue pants suit and a white dress shirt -- clearly out of place among the people pushing and shoving into and against him to catch as many glimpses as possible at whatever they're crowding in front of. Seiji can't see it, and his yells at them to excuse him and let him through are drowned by their own vocal commotion.
"Fuck it," he says, surprised at the anger and urgency in his voice. With a few steps back, he plows through the bodies clustered in front of him, scooping some away from his path like a swimmer would tread water with his arm strokes. Eventually, he reaches the front, where a wooden stage is erected and the blade of a guillotine is being pulled up to the mouton by a man in white robes, a gray mask covering his face, and brown hair sticking out from it. A hulking guard leads a figure cloaked head-to-toe in black towards the machine and, with a shove, lays her down on the bascule.
A woman, Seiji realizes by the cloth hugging her curved figure. He forgets he's among a crowd and stares at the covered woman, whose head has been secured in the hole in the lunette. The tails of her head scarf hang over where her face should be and around her neck.
"Even in death, she will live on," the masked man announces before letting go of the rope holding up the blade.
It falls on the woman's neck so fast Seiji isn't sure he had time to blink even if he could make himself. Her head thunks into the basket, and he starts for the stage before thinking to do it. Two more guards grab him from either side. They're just as big as the other guard, and Seiji can't muscle his way free. Their knees crumple and their bodies barrel to the ground when Seiji stabs them both with a knife he pulled from his pocket. He doesn't bother to climb the steps and hoists himself up over the edge of stage front. The masked man, the guard, and the woman's corpse are already gone. No matter. Seiji knows what he wants. He reaches into the basket and gently brings the covered head to eye level. For a moment, he hesitates, pulling back his free hand. After a breath, he slips the black cloth off.
Her eyes -- sea green, he discovers later after flipping her eyelids -- don't need to be open to hypnotize him. One look, and he can't help but wisp the wavy bangs of her red-orange hair away from her lily-white face. His fingers ghost down her cheekbones to cup her chin and tilt her head up. Showing him a pursed, faraway smile, Seiji knows and feels in his heart that she's gazing at him, into him.
He leans in to her, and nothing else matters just before--
[Video]
[Seiji springs up from his bed and tosses his blanket in the process. Panting, he claws into the mattress. Once he gathers himself, he turns to the Dreamberry on a nightstand beside his bed and grumbles. After brushing his tousled hair back with his hand, he shuts it off.]
[Video: Filtered to Meryl]
[Based on his clean, slicked back hair and the gray vest and slacks he wore over a white dress shirt Seiji's now wearing, some time has passed between the initial video and this filtered one. He sits at a table and leans the chair on his hind legs. He drapes an arm over the back rest, looks into the Dreamberry with his head turned slightly away, and curls the corners of his lips. Any of the shock and panic he displayed when he woke up from that dream? Wiped.]
Hey.
Are you doing anything tonight? It feels like forever since we got to be together. [A scoff.] I'm getting jealous whenever the boss's girlfriend is around him at work.
[He means it. Really, really, truly means it. But for some reason it's hard for him to say it right now.]
I miss you.