[Week 14, Day 2 | Dream ] you can watch the world devoured in its pain
[SOUNDTRACK | Smashing Pumpkins - the beginning is the end is the beginning]
Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour, I hold secrets flame
You can watch the world devoured in its pain
You're swimming, but you know that something isn't right. You can't remember how or why you decided to take a swim, but the water's deep and viscous. You can't even see your own hands in front of you. You try to swim toward the surface, kicking your legs violently, but it's not enough. You take some of the water in and the copper flavor makes you retch.
When your head emerges from the water, you hear a child's screaming. The child is fighting against a monster... the face is that of a man you recognize from a few years past. You were certain he'd been imprisoned in the Vendice water prison for the crimes he'd committed on the wives, children, sisters, and mothers of your allies. But here he is... slicing and ripping an innocent child in front of you. The rage that takes over you is enough for you to shift into your Hyper Dying Will.
The child's screaming stops. You're almost worried you've gone deaf as the atmosphere becomes noticeably thicker around you. The dead child is discarded and that man begins to boast about what he's done. There's no Vendice here. There's no justice. Only you. You feel your palms burning hot and without a second thought, you release your built up sky flames and send the deadly blow toward that man.
(He crumples, disintegrates into a million little shards of charred tiny arms and legs, flesh smoldering and burning down to the bone. The man disappears inside of the body of a child, and maybe there was never a man there to begin with, only a boy screaming at the grips of a monster submerged in the blood of a million lives carved into the flesh of the dying earth. The scene repeats itself -- changes, shifts outside: there he stands with fire burning at his hands and forehead, brighter than the sun, blood splashed down his cheeks and soaked through his clothes. Stands in the middle of the river, waist-high in death, and in the distance the child burns until there is nothing left but a silhouette of ash. The monster in the river throws its head back and cackles a bone-crunching laugh as he watches the world burn down. All Peter can do is watch. He has no body or voice to stop the man from reducing a child to dust.)
Later, you find yourself on the land. You can hear the voices all around you. All voices of people who've hurt the ones you love and care about. They're everywhere and you can't seem to find where they're coming from, no matter how hard you search.
Finally, you come across a group. As soon as you lay eyes on their elected leader, you realize that your worst fear about this place is coming true. Every one of them, prisoners of Vendice. Men and women you've personally fought and refused to kill. All here, waiting for you. Free. Vengeful. The only one missing from the fray is Rokudo Mukuro. You know he won't be there. He's with Chrome. His vengeance will wait.
You're afraid, but you approach them. When you get close enough, you start to smell it. It's a disgusting smell... burning meat, but it's no meat that should ever be consumed. Your heart jolts when you see the clothes on the ground. Kyoko's, Yamamoto's, Hibari's, Chrome's, Dino's, Fran's, Chikusa's, Belphegor's, Mukuro's. You're afraid to look when one woman's voice slices through your thoughts razor sharp.
"You want some?" She cackles and holds up a human hand, charcoal black. She takes a bite, stripping the flesh from the pinky finger.
You're already in Dying Will. You've given these people mercy and they've taken all that you love. You fly toward the woman and slap the burn remains out of her hand. She screams at you, cursing, blaming, and you just hit her over and over again. The others come and try to restrain you, but you turn and fight them off.
Dozens of people come in waves and you beat them back. When you feel that you can't punch and kick any longer, you burn. You don't even care about your own safety anymore. They've taken everything. Dying Will flames as hot as living fire envelope you and everything around you.
Burn. You'll burn them like they burned your friends.
(Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Life comes full circle to the very end. The fire burns hot and bright and Peter thinks just maybe this time he might die, with his skin burning, screaming, curling away from muscle and sinew, from bone turning to cinder -- his flesh, or maybe it's someone else's because he has no body of his own, only eyes to watch the world fall. They stare at the man with fire in his hands with accusation at their mouths and fear in their eyes that turn to smoke, explode like the sun coming out of their bodies -- but really he's the one that's doing it, that's plunging his hands into the thick of it as the life drains from them.
"Tsu-kun--" She stares at him with pain in her eyes and horror in her voice --
But he doesn't hear her at all.
She burns to ash beneath his fingers.)
NO! [ Peter wakes with a scream that rends his throat raw, and he's shaking, reaching for a woman who had turned to dust, gasping with his heart plunged into his throat and he still feels himself burning, feels the world burning around him, all these people who he instinctively knew were important, were loved ones, were innocent, turned to ash, the smell of flesh the most horrid scent scorching the inside of his nose. But Tsuna, this man made of fire, saw them all as monsters. Somehow Peter knows that this is some kind of premonition. That this is going to happen. It feels too real, like he had been there. Watching the future unfold.
As the scent of human flesh curdles his stomach, he leans over to retch, knowing only one thing --
He needs to stop this. ]
[ooc: In which Peter has a precognitive dream about Tsuna. The dream slides between Tsuna's point of view (written by Heather), and Peter's (in italics, written by Kuri)]
Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour, I hold secrets flame
You can watch the world devoured in its pain
You're swimming, but you know that something isn't right. You can't remember how or why you decided to take a swim, but the water's deep and viscous. You can't even see your own hands in front of you. You try to swim toward the surface, kicking your legs violently, but it's not enough. You take some of the water in and the copper flavor makes you retch.
When your head emerges from the water, you hear a child's screaming. The child is fighting against a monster... the face is that of a man you recognize from a few years past. You were certain he'd been imprisoned in the Vendice water prison for the crimes he'd committed on the wives, children, sisters, and mothers of your allies. But here he is... slicing and ripping an innocent child in front of you. The rage that takes over you is enough for you to shift into your Hyper Dying Will.
The child's screaming stops. You're almost worried you've gone deaf as the atmosphere becomes noticeably thicker around you. The dead child is discarded and that man begins to boast about what he's done. There's no Vendice here. There's no justice. Only you. You feel your palms burning hot and without a second thought, you release your built up sky flames and send the deadly blow toward that man.
(He crumples, disintegrates into a million little shards of charred tiny arms and legs, flesh smoldering and burning down to the bone. The man disappears inside of the body of a child, and maybe there was never a man there to begin with, only a boy screaming at the grips of a monster submerged in the blood of a million lives carved into the flesh of the dying earth. The scene repeats itself -- changes, shifts outside: there he stands with fire burning at his hands and forehead, brighter than the sun, blood splashed down his cheeks and soaked through his clothes. Stands in the middle of the river, waist-high in death, and in the distance the child burns until there is nothing left but a silhouette of ash. The monster in the river throws its head back and cackles a bone-crunching laugh as he watches the world burn down. All Peter can do is watch. He has no body or voice to stop the man from reducing a child to dust.)
Later, you find yourself on the land. You can hear the voices all around you. All voices of people who've hurt the ones you love and care about. They're everywhere and you can't seem to find where they're coming from, no matter how hard you search.
Finally, you come across a group. As soon as you lay eyes on their elected leader, you realize that your worst fear about this place is coming true. Every one of them, prisoners of Vendice. Men and women you've personally fought and refused to kill. All here, waiting for you. Free. Vengeful. The only one missing from the fray is Rokudo Mukuro. You know he won't be there. He's with Chrome. His vengeance will wait.
You're afraid, but you approach them. When you get close enough, you start to smell it. It's a disgusting smell... burning meat, but it's no meat that should ever be consumed. Your heart jolts when you see the clothes on the ground. Kyoko's, Yamamoto's, Hibari's, Chrome's, Dino's, Fran's, Chikusa's, Belphegor's, Mukuro's. You're afraid to look when one woman's voice slices through your thoughts razor sharp.
"You want some?" She cackles and holds up a human hand, charcoal black. She takes a bite, stripping the flesh from the pinky finger.
You're already in Dying Will. You've given these people mercy and they've taken all that you love. You fly toward the woman and slap the burn remains out of her hand. She screams at you, cursing, blaming, and you just hit her over and over again. The others come and try to restrain you, but you turn and fight them off.
Dozens of people come in waves and you beat them back. When you feel that you can't punch and kick any longer, you burn. You don't even care about your own safety anymore. They've taken everything. Dying Will flames as hot as living fire envelope you and everything around you.
Burn. You'll burn them like they burned your friends.
(Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Life comes full circle to the very end. The fire burns hot and bright and Peter thinks just maybe this time he might die, with his skin burning, screaming, curling away from muscle and sinew, from bone turning to cinder -- his flesh, or maybe it's someone else's because he has no body of his own, only eyes to watch the world fall. They stare at the man with fire in his hands with accusation at their mouths and fear in their eyes that turn to smoke, explode like the sun coming out of their bodies -- but really he's the one that's doing it, that's plunging his hands into the thick of it as the life drains from them.
"Tsu-kun--" She stares at him with pain in her eyes and horror in her voice --
But he doesn't hear her at all.
She burns to ash beneath his fingers.)
NO! [ Peter wakes with a scream that rends his throat raw, and he's shaking, reaching for a woman who had turned to dust, gasping with his heart plunged into his throat and he still feels himself burning, feels the world burning around him, all these people who he instinctively knew were important, were loved ones, were innocent, turned to ash, the smell of flesh the most horrid scent scorching the inside of his nose. But Tsuna, this man made of fire, saw them all as monsters. Somehow Peter knows that this is some kind of premonition. That this is going to happen. It feels too real, like he had been there. Watching the future unfold.
As the scent of human flesh curdles his stomach, he leans over to retch, knowing only one thing --
He needs to stop this. ]
[ooc: In which Peter has a precognitive dream about Tsuna. The dream slides between Tsuna's point of view (written by Heather), and Peter's (in italics, written by Kuri)]