[ This seems arbitrary, probably, but for Rey it's an obvious connection. Every time Kylo Ren has messed something up in the course of their being here, food has been his solution. If she presents Riku with food, he'll obviously soften in his disappointment. ]
french stuff, i think? he likes what sora makes and that's what he said he makes. i don't know much about different foods though. before i came here i mostly ate the same kind of stuff every day.
[ Rey's surprised by something so familiar to her. She isn't eager to dwell on Jakku so she moves on quickly, but she asserts the connection with the earnestness of someone who's had ... well, very few in her life. ]
Yeah? Me too. I don't really want to go to Sora ...
[ Not about this. Then Sora would be disappointed too. ]
[Oh hey. Roxas is surprised to hear from Melisandre, but also glad—more than he would have guessed.]
oh hi we're pretty good i guess my roommate was one of the ones that got kidnapped during the trip but he was fine nice to be back now i guess but it was kind of cool to see more of this world how about you? :)
I was lucky enough to not find myself taken away so shortly into my recovery from the first abduction.
⟪ don’t accuse her of not having a sense of humour. it’s just dark, dry, and not really all that funny. but attempts are made! ⟫
If you liked the travel, surely you must be glad that we are now granted ways to travel far and wide, no?
⟪ and while that is all very friendly and sweet, it does say a lot of the boy that he answers the question of the collective well-being, but does not say so much of his own. ⟫
[Roxas still really isn't sure how that happened.]
i think it's a lot better than what we had before it still feels really weird to be limited to just this one world but there's a lot to explore in this one world i feel lesss....cramped, i guess?
[ Roxas can have this dream anytime in the next IC month. ]
You may or may not realize that you're dreaming. That's fine, though. Your limbs can't move, and the light overhead is a calm green hue that washes over you, allowing your eyes to adjust. You can tell that your muscles haven't begun to atrophy, but you don't remember the last time you were conscious. A man stands over you, dressed in a button-up shirt with rolled up sleeves.
"Sorry to keep you sedated, but so far, well—it's done well to keep you from remembering. I feel a bit … uh, guilty. Bad. So I wanted to tell someone. Couldn't risk it on any of the more Goliath-like of you, so I'm doing it for you." You won't recall the next few minutes of the monologue. His tone is even, low in nature. Like he knows that keeping it that way will make it hard to remember.
His voice fades back in as he begins to rise, turning away. "I wish you could tell the people you're headed to that I am sorry. I didn't … that wasn't supposed to happen. All those people taken. Being used. I didn't mean for it to happen."
His fingers drift up to his temple, as if he's got a headache. Even the calm green of the room begins to fade, and before you sleep, you'll see a symbol on the door that closes behind him: a bird, yellow with a gray breast.
[ it is not to say he has not been attempting to reach those on the inside— he has. he is stubborn, terribly so. and even with the acknowledgement that his messages would not be received, he attempted. and he attempted. and now: ]
Roxas.
[ it is a question, as much as it is a call to attention. ]
Are you well?
[ whole, is what he would mean. without injuries too severe. the information that has emerged about the inside in the reconfigured connections does not bode well. ]
[ he is no wordsmith like wei wuxian. he is built instead to listen, to aid through use of his hands. he is action, where language ashes as though wood left within the hearth. lan wangji is not one to give himself easily, but is stubborn where he gives.
and so, he does not expect an emotional account. were he roxas, he would provide far less. instead, all one might rely upon were he in roxas's position would be what it looks to be inside such dark, such silence.
there is a pause, as though he were speaking to him across the kitchen table. that silence that means: I am listening, without expectation or pressure to talk more than he would want. in a past life, lan wangji went where chaos was. he helped others, no matter how small the problem. no matter how large.
lan wangji asks, to afford roxas time to think on what he desires to divulge. ]
Are you uninjured?
[ he is well enough to make such admissions, after all. but, to be thorough is better than not. ]
[Even after months of living together, there's still plenty Roxas doesn't doesn't know about him, and that's fine. There's a lot he doesn't know about Roxas, either, and that's fine too. Being roommates, even friends, doesn't mean they have to bare all to each other. That's not how it works, and he knows that his own willingness to trust doesn't come quickly.
But he does know enough to know that real concern lies underneath the sparse, simple question. And he can answer it with the truth, in his own way.]
none of this is real
[It's not what was asked. But it's the first thing on his mind.]
they took us and put us here and everything's fake but we can't tell from the inside it's happening again
[ again, roxas tells him. lan wangji tucks the errant word aside for now. it is not his place to speculate or ask if he does not give it. not right now. and so, he affirms. there are not always places to anchor inside himself. but, he anchors himself now. as he so often does, as he so often is. ]
It is not real.
[ it doesn't matter what is asked. people are not often as forthright as he, evade more pointedly. what matters, lan wangji has learned, is full shape and context. ]
But, illusion does not always make it easier to bear.
[ he has suffered dreams upon dreams upon dreams, almost too real to bear. he has seen incantations and spells and curses. that is a point of relation, for him. ]
[It's not real. None of this is real. The life that the AI wants him to have here isn't real. But none of that makes the way his hands are shaking or his throat is clenching any less potent.]
i hate this we're trapped here and there's nothing we can do it leave what if we start to forget that we don't belong here?
[ what is seen and what is felt is more often believed with the mind and lan wangji was no less guilty, no less immediate in his assessments when he was young. assurances do not provide a tangible comfort, something to be held in the palm or with the lifting of veils. but, it does provide means to gain footing on. and so, as lan wangji is always, he is honest. ]
We will not pause our efforts to free you.
[ but, lan wangji knows what it is to be confined. he knows what it is to be trapped within a set space, to be tormented in such a specific way. he knows. but, for himself, when the body was free - grief held no sense of time. it was only himself, a child who needed him. he pauses. ]
Speak with me. [ roxas, he means. all of them. each and any who should like a contact on the outside, an individual they might reach out to. if lan wangji can help in this way, then it is the least he may do. ] I will remind you.
[It's something, for sure. They haven't been abandoned. This isn't the same situation as before. As far as he can tell, their memories haven't been touched.
But there's still that same deep anxiety, a twisting in the pit of his stomach. This is too close to the worst thing that ever happened to him.]
we're working really hard to get you out okay!!!! i promise!
[ roof baby is missing, dad is frantic ]
Do you need anything? I know I can't send you anything, but I can prepare it for you when we get you out. Were you on those supply runs with everyone? You're not hurt, right? Physically or emotionally, I mean.
[Roof baby really wishes he had a bag to breathe into but he's trying his best to deal.]
this whole thing sucks and i hate it and i hate that i'm trapped in a fake world that wants me to be something i'm not AGAIN what do you guys know on the outside? will smashing things here get us out? because i'll do it
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
@kira.solo
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not as well as sora does
but yeah
i guess you could say that
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[ This seems arbitrary, probably, but for Rey it's an obvious connection. Every time Kylo Ren has messed something up in the course of their being here, food has been his solution. If she presents Riku with food, he'll obviously soften in his disappointment. ]
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french stuff, i think?
he likes what sora makes and that's what he said he makes.
i don't know much about different foods though.
before i came here i mostly ate the same kind of stuff every day.
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Yeah? Me too.
I don't really want to go to Sora ...
[ Not about this. Then Sora would be disappointed too. ]
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you wouldn't have to ask him to cook for you
you could just ask him what's good?
he could probably recommend a recipe
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I was hoping for something I could pick up for him. Something that would last.
Like sweets?
[ anytime someone really uses the kitchen at her place, it's kylo. even though he doesn't actually live there ... ]
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except i think it's hard to get here.
i've never found any that's like the stuff at home.
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@melisandre.voktys
⟪ yeah, she may have learned not to write these things like she'd write a letter, but she can't skip all manners of preface.⟫
I was meaning to ask if you and yours are well?
⟪ she does not know what he has here in terms of friends and family, but he seems a spirited boy – surely he's not on his own. ⟫
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oh hi
we're pretty good i guess
my roommate was one of the ones that got kidnapped during the trip but he was fine
nice to be back now i guess but it was kind of cool to see more of this world
how about you?
:)
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⟪ don’t accuse her of not having a sense of humour. it’s just dark, dry, and not really all that funny. but attempts are made! ⟫
If you liked the travel, surely you must be glad that we are now granted ways to travel far and wide, no?
⟪ and while that is all very friendly and sweet, it does say a lot of the boy that he answers the question of the collective well-being, but does not say so much of his own. ⟫
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[Roxas still really isn't sure how that happened.]
i think it's a lot better than what we had before
it still feels really weird to be limited to just this one world
but there's a lot to explore in this one world
i feel lesss....cramped, i guess?
a dream
( @wangji.lan )
Roxas.
[ it is a question, as much as it is a call to attention. ]
Are you well?
[ whole, is what he would mean. without injuries too severe. the information that has emerged about the inside in the reconfigured connections does not bode well. ]
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He's not okay. And he doesn't know how honest he should be about that.]
i've been better
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and so, he does not expect an emotional account. were he roxas, he would provide far less. instead, all one might rely upon were he in roxas's position would be what it looks to be inside such dark, such silence.
there is a pause, as though he were speaking to him across the kitchen table. that silence that means: I am listening, without expectation or pressure to talk more than he would want. in a past life, lan wangji went where chaos was. he helped others, no matter how small the problem. no matter how large.
lan wangji asks, to afford roxas time to think on what he desires to divulge. ]
Are you uninjured?
[ he is well enough to make such admissions, after all. but, to be thorough is better than not. ]
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But he does know enough to know that real concern lies underneath the sparse, simple question. And he can answer it with the truth, in his own way.]
none of this is real
[It's not what was asked. But it's the first thing on his mind.]
they took us and put us here and everything's fake
but we can't tell from the inside
it's happening again
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It is not real.
[ it doesn't matter what is asked. people are not often as forthright as he, evade more pointedly. what matters, lan wangji has learned, is full shape and context. ]
But, illusion does not always make it easier to bear.
[ he has suffered dreams upon dreams upon dreams, almost too real to bear. he has seen incantations and spells and curses. that is a point of relation, for him. ]
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[It's not real. None of this is real. The life that the AI wants him to have here isn't real. But none of that makes the way his hands are shaking or his throat is clenching any less potent.]
i hate this
we're trapped here and there's nothing we can do it leave
what if we start to forget that we don't belong here?
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We will not pause our efforts to free you.
[ but, lan wangji knows what it is to be confined. he knows what it is to be trapped within a set space, to be tormented in such a specific way. he knows. but, for himself, when the body was free - grief held no sense of time. it was only himself, a child who needed him. he pauses. ]
Speak with me. [ roxas, he means. all of them. each and any who should like a contact on the outside, an individual they might reach out to. if lan wangji can help in this way, then it is the least he may do. ] I will remind you.
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[It's something, for sure. They haven't been abandoned. This isn't the same situation as before. As far as he can tell, their memories haven't been touched.
But there's still that same deep anxiety, a twisting in the pit of his stomach. This is too close to the worst thing that ever happened to him.]
you promise?
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slides back in here to slam this down
winky face
@xuanyu.mo
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[ roof baby is missing, dad is frantic ]
Do you need anything? I know I can't send you anything, but I can prepare it for you when we get you out. Were you on those supply runs with everyone? You're not hurt, right? Physically or emotionally, I mean.
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this whole thing sucks and i hate it and i hate that i'm trapped in a fake world that wants me to be something i'm not AGAIN
what do you guys know on the outside? will smashing things here get us out? because i'll do it