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[ The Emperor // ask first if you want to see pls ]


The frown on her face grew slightly pained as Robert corrected her, and Mimsy tried her best not to think about why, but she had never excelled at thoughtlessness.

It helped, however, to have his comfort as a distraction. The cousin he said he loved once was now the one he was trying to save her from, in memories of her past. Clerise was no longer here to fight through those defenses, and it felt nice to be hugged close to him, knowing that she had impossible things Clerise could never touch.

She looked up at him as he spoke to her, and nodded when he asked if she remembered, because she remembered that day very well.

Another little gasp got stuck in her throat, but it was one of delight this time. She freed her arm and reached to touch his cheek, leaned up to give him a kiss, and began to pet his hair, though it was difficult to keep her arm upright with the stiffness in her joints.

Good boy, said her actions in return. Good boy, for destroying a human life with your own hands.

"Ohh. I love you." The words she murmured, still petting his hair, could have just as easily been words spoken in sympathy of his shame, to comfort him over the regret in his voice.

But they weren't.


"Am I a monster?" she asked her mother through the bedroom door, who screamed in fright and reminded her that she was a monster. Nineteen times.

"Am I a monster?" she asked her father, as he braided her hair and she picked at her thumb. She almost concluded he didn't intend to respond, by the time he did - he'd made no indication that he even heard her, and finished braiding in silence. Then he kneeled in front of her and put his hands on either side of her face, ensuring that she would not look away from him this time.

"Yes." There was a resigned certainty in his voice, and he sighed as he forced himself to look at her. She stared back, and it felt a lot like she was looking at her own eyes: green, flecked with blue, surrounded by thick black lashes, dull and devoid of something that most everyone else seemed to have. Something that had to be important.

Something that kept the monster away, maybe.

"Yes, you are, princess." His thumbs pressed against her little jaw, and he clenched his teeth to stop himself from pushing harder. "But it's okay. It has to be, because there's nothing we can do about it. This won't go away."

Her eyelashes fluttered as she blinked, and he didn't reprimand her for looking away when her eyes darted to an empty space past him.

"You can't change what you are, but you can learn how to pretend. If you want to listen, and promise to try, I'll tell you how people are supposed to act." He moved his hands from her face to rub his eyes with the heels of his palms. "Then it wouldn't matter. If you don't let anyone see, and nobody notices, it would be just like you were like everyone else. You have to learn how to be as human as the rest of us. Can you do that? Will you try?"

Mimsy nodded, because she was afraid of the day when she learned why everyone who used that word made it sound like it meant something so unforgivably terrible.

The Queen had been defeated which should have been the end, but no. They still had the other side to contend with. The one the other players hadn’t been able to handle and now she, it, was trying to deal with them all. Whatever this place was still wanted to trap all of them here.

He so wasn’t going to let that happen.

He tried not to be frightened of the Queen’s new appearance as he and ‘Land took their final decision they’d had enough and turned up to face her. He couldn’t get the strange feeling to go away though as they neared the Queen. Everything seemed a little … off.

Off quickly became an understatement as he tried to attack and instead felt his memories being pulled from his head. Any other memory might have been fine but this one, this was one he had never wanted to see again…….

It had been the perfect day, bright and sunny and warm and so for once instead of going down to the beach he’d taken his sisters up into the jungle. They went all the time, up the hiking trails to see the birds and flowers that lived in the area. They’d probably gone this way hundreds of times. His sisters laughed and played as they followed a stream up and he’d answered questions about the flowers and tourists when he could. Nothing had seemed odd even when they found a new fissure open which showed the magma flowing underground out of the volcano.

He’d told the girls they could look but not to get too close while he got a rock out of his shoe. They were only out of arms reach for a moment when he heard the first scream. It was a sound he’d never forgotten, his littlest sister’s scream as the creature’s huge hand wrapped around her leg as it crawled out of the fissure.

The thing was made of cracked and blackened stones which flowed over a molten core, only barely human shaped and it towered over the two little girls.

“No!” shoe forgotten he had never run as fast in his life as the creature held one sister up by her now charred leg and reached out to close it’s other hand around the other little girl. He shoved his sister out of the way, the only sound in his ears the sound of the two girls screaming, one in pain and the other in fear. His own quickly joined as the creature wrapped one hand around his hip and hauled him off his feet. The pain seared into him as he was flung away from the monster and hit the dirt and trees and few yards away.

He tried to get up, to stop the blackness of unconsciousness from eating away at him, tried to save them, as the little girls continued to scream. He heard everything go silent just before he blacked out …. They were gone.

OCTOPU55Y wasn't going to let herself be trapped.

...or was she? She didn't know... All her memories were a jumble, a mess she couldn't repair. Her memories, unwound— undone? Unraveled, she... Was so confused. Her mind was now an empty jar, and all she could remember was one memory— her mother? She was... Leading her to their home. She was hurt? Her leg, ********— searing pain hit her leg, and then suddenly, the feeling was gone, replaced with a cool feeling of relaxation and calmness. Her heart tugged. She could see the scene happen in front of her, literally— and then looked around, nervous. Could anyone else see it...? She was so nervous, ********. She didn't want... Anyone to see this.

These were her innermost personal memories— she knew they were. Or well, she thought she knew they were. OCTO sighed. Maybe they couldn't see them... None of them looked toward her. She sighed softly. Thank god. Looking back to the scene, it was like a fragment of her memory, falling into her hand in a flurry of movement— fragments. OH. Ha...

He'd been working on the project for nearly six months, starting with meticulous research, then careful planning, then gathering the requisite supplies and making preparations. His parents had approved of the project, and his chapter representative had given him the go-ahead. He'd been sacrificing sleep to keep up on his homework as well, but it was worth it, because his experiment was underway now; two plots of land were planted in the north corner of the farm, one control and one experimental, and they might be barely larger than a standard garden plot but he would have his results by fall.

Dog smiled a little, sheepishly, as the memory faded. He'd been so proud of that project.

[ 0 Damage ]

Shadow shook her head to get rid of her last flashback. She did not want to remember her mother at this time and especially not memory. She looked around end spotted some other people close by. They looked frozen as if they weren't really there and other were slowly making there way up towards the boss, but at a really slow paste. "Why are they walking that slow? They should be charging. She looked at the "frozen" people and thought to herself; "what will happen if I push them. Will they fall over or will they wake up?" She contemplated whether or not she should perform her little experiment, but in the end she decides to focus on the boss instead.

There were things he was supposed to be doing, supposed to be practicing flight first and foremost, but he was tired. It wasn’t fair, he had a harder time with this because his wings were smaller than others his age. He’d been trying for hours, leaping off one of the cliff side stones, flapping as hard as he could trying for loft and gaining it for at best a few moments, desperately swaying in the air, lashing his tail the way he had been taught to ‘swim’ through the air, cycling his wings the way they had shown him, but his wings burned with weariness, and the sun was gloriously high and made him long to just finish the swim to the stone in the middle of the lake over which he practiced, and –sleep.


He made two more attempts at flight before temptation was too much, he did at least ‘fly’ through the water, that little extra bit of practice before he shifted to his ‘naga’ like form, using his arms to lever himself out of the water and onto the gloriously warm stone.

He coiled around into a wide circle, fanning his wings to either side and let out a contented sigh as the sun beat down on his back turning his scales into small pearls of color, the water slowly rolling off him in lazy rivulets.

Oh yes he’d hear about giving up later, but right now, it was perfect.

[[ ... Wow I'm tired. IGNORE THE ATTACK DICE. ]]

With his mind locked tight under Azrael's protection, Dreadpirate begins to look for his friends. He plans to look for Gryphons and Dormice, and the occasional glance at Caterpillars and Hatters especially if he sees any together together (he thinks of fouof and OwO, never far from each other in battle). The search becomes moot - it's only a few steps until he spies a feathered tail on a Dormouse, he knows he's found one of his targets.

"Pachua," he starts to say, but is cut off when a 'movie' begins playing around Oroboros-Tea.

'Is that how it looks to other people?' is his first, reactive thought. The second is, 'Did people see mine?'

And then he actually pays attention to Pachua's memory and his own are suddenly the last thing on his mind. The movie plays from Pachua's perspective, seeing through his eyes.

What Davey first mistook for boarding school is quickly revealed to be anything but. The students sitting around the table have horns and animal ears, strangely coloured skin, claws and tails, wings, glowing eyes and more. When the "movie" looks down, the hands fumbling with cutlery are covered in scales.

Davey swallows, grimacing at the taste of bile. When Pachua had spoken of queztlcoatls, Davey realises far too late, he hadn't been talking about a weapon. He'd been referring to himself.

Davey's friend was a monster. Davey had married a monster. It was only a game within a game, but still!

~A round of applause for your skills of observation,~ Azrael mocks. ~Let's hope your life never depends on them. Or your virtue.~

Voices in heads should not be allowed to leer. He'd prefer it if Azrael was outraged or possessive.

Another memory begins, only confirming Pachua's status as a target and not the fellow Hunter that Davey had originally assumed. He feels betrayed, even though it was his assumption that there were only Hunters and civilians in here. Though if there's one...

He stares at the dark room. The walls are deep within shadow. He can't tell the size of the room, let alone how many people are in it. And how many of those players are monsters?

Pachua's third memory fades and Davey stares at him. The avatar/puppet hasn't changed, but he's struggling to find traces of the friend he thought he'd made.

"You're a monster," he forces out.

Oh god, Davey's still wearing the quetzlcoatl ring on his right hand, too. (Raze's ring being on the left ring finger and all.) He wants to remove it. He will, as soon as the shock lifts. Or maybe he's just hoping for a denial, somehow, a claim that the 'memory' was a fake.