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Post by Raven8 on Oct 8, 2014 21:29:27 GMT -8
[smear:880011]....a world lost to all. A time and a place, but when and where? It could be now, it could be long and lost into the darkness of the abyss that we call the future. Is it where you were? Is it even where you are now? None can tell, not even the one who knows for sure.
Like a dream ending, the time to awaken comes. But does this awakening spark a return to the realm of consciousness, or an even deeper sleep, and a deeper still illusion? Does the darkness speak for what is, or what is to come? None can tell, not even the one who knows for sure.[/smear:000000]
(This RP topic is to be entered via invitation only)
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Post by Unknown on Oct 8, 2014 23:44:13 GMT -8
[smear:000000]They knew this world, and they were sure of this time! As sure as the blade would be drawn the moment it was time to battle, they had stepped forth boldly into this darkness that blinded them from everything around. Vigilant and calm, the warrior moved through the unending shades of black and hands were poised at a chest level rise while feet opposed in a continuous shuffle. Left, right, front, back...they were ready to combat what would lie in the darkness.
”Who is there? Who approaches?”
The voice was with a tone like a crusader for what was just, but eyes were sheepish as if they were tiring from this unending battle with the darkness they stared into. It became hypnotic! The two colorful orbs lacking their glimmer did seem close to sleep, but the will begged them to stay awake. The good fight was here and now, but whether they would be ready came down to this moment. Would the mind be able to fight this enemy or surrender because of a battered will?
Ready? Not? Well...what was to come?[/smear:3300EE]
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Post by Raven8 on Oct 16, 2014 20:04:51 GMT -8
A dream? No, an awakening. The one within this zone awakens, to discover new surroundings. Gone are the grand building and vast landscape of Element City. Here instead is what appears to be the inside of a PC; a PC that seems long-abandoned. All network connection is gone, and all means of seeing anything beyond the darkness.
.....that is, save a single window. From where the disoriented Navi stands, a view of something outside of this prison can be seen. From this gateway to beyond, a face so very familiar and dear. Someone of absolute trust....
?: ...a failure. I didn't want to admit it, but I had to move on....
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Post by Unknown on Oct 17, 2014 16:57:26 GMT -8
[smear:3300EE]To wake? From what? They had known of no sleep. But how else were they to explain this? Towering walls of concrete in a metropolis had vanished as if they were ghosts passing through plains of existence. There were nothing left but corners full of shadows of some closed off cyberspace, enough ground to ponder existence and nothing further, and that one window that gave reprieve of their prison.
“That voice...I know of it...”
Fingers pressed towards the glass, as the grasp of a criminal would meet their bars. Even though not guilty of crime, just hearing that voice beyond the looking glass was the equivalent of Chinese water torture. With the heart of a child, the sheepish prisoner looked on with eyes battered by the slumber and searched for the source of the voice that sounded like music to the melodically deprived.[/smear:CC3300]
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Post by Raven8 on Oct 25, 2014 7:40:07 GMT -8
As if fully awakening from a deep sleep, the scene begins to come to the Navi within the PC, bits and pieces becoming clear and far more apparent. She finds herself in a PC within the confines of a sterile, frigid laboratory. Machines of various size and function line the walls, and frame the two individuals speaking. One is a man in a lab-coat with the marking "OEL" on the pocket, and the other is the smiling face of this Navi's closest companion...
Xenneth: Thank you so much for all that you're doing, doctor. I really don't know what I'd do...
The other man waves a hand and smiles at the boy before him reassuringly.
?: Not an issue, my boy. This kind of thing happens all the time. As people, we try to form bonds with our belongings all the time, trying to assign human aspects to them to make them as relatable as possible. And it's made so easy in this case, as they're made to act so much like us, but in the end they're really just... "things".
The professor picks up a pencil from his desk, one worn down to little more than an elongated nub.
?: I've used this pencil for the past few months, and it really shows. The paint is worn off from my hands, the eraser is almost gone, and it's been sharpened down to just a few inches. I used this pencil to write about some of my most important projects in recent days....
The professor then re-positions his hand and snaps the pencil in two, dropping the pieces onto his table.
?: ....and now, my partner in so much work is broken and worthless. I could feel bad about this and remember all that I've been through with it, or...
The professor then reaches into the drawer of his desk and pulls out a fresh, unused pencil of the exact same design as the one that he'd just snapped.
?: ....I could realize that the emotional investment that I have in it is just that; my emotional investment. It's a thing, a tool. A much as I'd grown attached to it, its time had come and now I have a new tool that will work far better. And, eventually, this tool too will break, and I'll reach into my drawer again and fetch another just like it.
The boy gives a bitter smile to the professor with a nod. He then looks down to his hand and examines the object within it; a brand new PET. And revealed on its screen is the smiling face of a Navi... one of nearly identical design to Megami, but without the scratches and scars, and without the emotional pain looming behind her eyes....
Xenneth: ...I suppose you're right, doctor.
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Post by ~Divine|<3|Heart~ on Oct 25, 2014 12:20:42 GMT -8
Was he right? Did he speak the truth?
The banging across the screen display was inaudible compared to that of the words of the nihilism the doctor had preached. Whether it was correct in a moral sense was not even a factor as the NetNavi watched with sorrowful eyes just how easily a pencil could be replaced in mere seconds. As if to repeat the very scene like a powerful truth found in words, she had seen Xenneth’s very hands hold a new P.E.T. The color was unfamiliar, so was the design, as well as the face inside that was looking back to the violet haired boy the way he used to look at...
“Me...” the NetNavi whispered as she inched close to the screen, “He looked at me...the same way...”
The features of the NetNavi was illuminated in the lone prison. A maiden once fair and beautiful upon her first wake now looked at herself in comparison to this NetNavi. Her own clothes were torn around the edges, so they were no longer as decent due to the battle damage accumulated over time. A graphics model was not enough to tailor to her anymore, and there was also the battle scars inflicted. Some of them vanished, and one in particular remained that had come ever close as a light nick over her eye. Her programming was more chaotic than ever, she felt unstable at times, and not to mention unworthy of such a perfect Net Operator with a kind heart.
“A failure...Xen-kun said?” She shook her head, eyes as if she heard the most skeptical of news. She looked at the screen, rebelling against reality. “We are a team! He would not feel that way about me! I am more than an...’Emotional Investment’ just as he is to me! Because I love him and he...”
Oh...that’s right. She had stopped and frozen as a statue. He did not know...
“He...loves me...does he?”
Struck by a thunder that was nonphysical, and her emotions plummeting into an abyss that her mind continued to grow with mounting depth, the female NetNavi walked away from the display and into the shadow of her prison, as if to retreat and come up with a way to explain what her eyes had seen thus far...and hope her ears were not hearing correctly.
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Post by Raven8 on Nov 11, 2014 18:20:50 GMT -8
The shadows of the abandoned PC seem to welcome Megami and encourage her sadness, drawing her deeper into her sadness and penetrating deep into her heart. It had all been said already; her fate was to be this, and her grand future nothing more than what she sees now... and what of that which she doesn't yet see?
It's hard, isn't it?
Deeper in the shadows, a voice rises. Sitting in the darkness of an inky black corner like a broken doll is another Navi... or, at least, what seems to be another Navi. The lack of light makes it impossible to make out any details with absolute certainty.
That was me, a long time ago. It doesn't feel like it though; it feels like yesterday. Back when I thought that.... life.... still had hope....
The figure trails off as it speaks, falling into silence as it obviously looks down at its own hands.
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Post by ~Divine|<3|Heart~ on Nov 11, 2014 21:28:44 GMT -8
These words were like a poison to the heart, and Megami had a resilience like none other. Her mind had played back what the eyes had witnessed, but that very same heart rejected the poison! The words of this mysterious figure was an injection that only broken the skin but nothing more. However, its effects shown with a tremble, raspy tone of voice, and eyes that were blurred with droplets that were too flimsy to be considered tears at that moment.
“Life will always have hope...” her tongue clicked with an anger obviously misplaced, “I-I...I cannot picture it with anyone but him! Xen-kun is my everything! This...this picture is a lie! I know he cherishes me just as I do him: I can only hope he knows this...hope that he realizes this...hope he sees this mistake he-”
She paused.
Who was this NetNavi to try to fathom what she spoke of? Megami had been so distraught that she had let the images she seen become her reality. The sight of young Xenneth caressing his P.E.T. and herself was not there, it was like that analogy humans would give: a cold day in heck? She was close to it, and it was Xenneth that usually finished her analogies properly, reinforcing why she felt that there would be none other for her to fill in her life as not only her Net Operator...but...something more!
She knew her friend...her loved one! So why would this NetNavi act as if she knew of him?
“My apologies Samaritan,” she continued her cries, “You spoke as if you were one with such a boy as Xen-kun, but you know no one like him! I am sorry you are cast to the shadows, much more than I! However, you know not of Xen-kun! I feel sympathy and forgiveness for you, as you know not our bond...nor understand it.”
She rejected the sight of what she seen, but the fear was there! Arrogance budded from it, and from this a tongue that had a piercing sting like thorns. The rose that was Megami continued to boast, a last defense to assure herself that this was not real and her fear was nothing but simple thoughts of a child. The NetNavi, she had shown no consideration for as she had a weak, but confident smile.
Body trembling, voice shaky, the darkness echoed! The sound of Megami’s arrogant declaration of just how loved she was, or thought to be, was music to her ears as it continued to sound through the darkness in which she found comfort.
Her will was sound even if it would only be as temporary as the resounding echo.
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Post by Raven8 on Nov 24, 2014 22:05:33 GMT -8
....Megami's words, harsh and without falter, seem to outright pierce this broken Navi, giving it wounds that could be no worse if they were physical. A tear shines in the meager light and falls to the ground in silence as the hooded figure turns away, allowing silence to fall between them for a moment.
?: ...was I this cruel too? I'd forgotten how it felt... to still have that hope, that wish, that dream. To see his face, and wish that things could be different.
The Navi then turns an eye to Megami, visible pain coming from the battered and wounded soul.
?: I do know one like Xen-Kun. I do know the hope of which you speak. The joy, the unbridled excitement for the future, and the dream of always being together.
The Navi then turns fully to the light, moving in a manner similar to an old woman in the dead of winter. The hood drops in silence, and light at last reveals the face of this Navi; covered in scars of the body and of the heart; some familiar, some new.
Megami: One does not forget a partner like Xen-Kun. I never will, and neither will you. That will now be your curse as it is mine...
Megami, aged and damaged to a greater degree than her younger counterpart, drops her eyes to the ground, a wishful sadness so familiar to the young girl now before her dripping to the cold, steel floor below with her tears.
Megami: ...I just wish that I could take this truth from you now.
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Post by ~Divine|<3|Heart~ on Nov 25, 2014 20:28:56 GMT -8
No frame could capture the stillness Megami was trapped in.
She stood frozen in mid reach, her hand was out as if she could denounce the ignorant NetNavi with the stroke of a hand. However, Megami stood still as her eyes could not pry themselves away from herself. Her throat had succumbed to some pain that made her heart plunge into an indescribable darkness, and finally she thawed as her hand dropped to her side and a breath escaped between her lips first.
“Truth…” words following, “That is not.”
Her eyes had become flooded with tears, but yet, they did not flow. It was as if they had not quite surrendered yet to the despair that Megami was fighting back. Her expression was unchanging unlike the NetNavi before herself. Her misery was genuine as she let her tears pelt the steel floor like drops of rain. That empty look was like a mirror reflecting her soul, but still, there was just one word that she could not get over.
“Truth…” another attempt, “The truth is…”
She stopped. It did not matter anymore, right? So many times over, she told herself the truth and she wondered if this would happen again. Her voice lost in the darkness and cast aside, just like this one. The doctor’s words rung in her head even if not spoken to her, this NetNavi was like a future worse than an apocalypse, and the cold steel that met her hands and knees as she lost her will to stand had been described by a weak utter of her lips.
“The truth is…” her loud thought was completed by sobs and wails filled with pain. Her tears soaked the floor and her body was a broken soul within a heap of data amongst the cold, dark, and secluded terminal.
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