+ Your imagination can't hurt you! +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: YOU!
Where: The Mindscape
When: starting November 11th
Rating: may be up to R for character deaths
Summary: Navigate challenges to learn valuable lessons about nonviolence, cooperation, and self-sacrifice! Release your inner animal! Read more about the event here, and on the bulletin board.
The Story:




"If you know yourself, you have nothing to fear."
"Working together is the only way."
"Deaths are a necessary part of life, but not all deaths are necessary."
"The needs of the many outweigh the life of just one."

Comments

[noreason]

[Everything but the last part of that explanation goes right past Naoki.]

The sunglasses make sense, then. Do you need them even inside?

[He leads her around a corner, pauses, then reverses. That was a dead end and no reason to go all the way down to the end.]

[choosetruth]

Depends on the lighting. I can see better than anyone in the dark, and they do make lights that don't hurt my eyes. Like blacklights.

[She stumbles slightly at the reversal of direction, but catches herself easily enough.]

Another dead end?

[noreason]

[Despite talking about how she can't see, he's forgotten that...she can't see. He puts his other hand out to steady her.]

Yeah. Sorry about that.

[He continues past the dead end.]

I think we're making progress, though.

[choosetruth]

I'm fine. [She snaps her words out like a whip, sharp and fast and leaving no room for argument. She hates this, and she knows he doesn't deserve her ire but she's furious at her own limitations and had no other way to act.]

Sorry, just... let's keep moving. I want to get out of here.

[noreason]

Would you feel better if our positions were reversed?

[He's just wondering, not picking at her. He's been in something similar to her situation, needing to rely on his demons, but that was different.]

[choosetruth]

Yes. Though I still wouldn't exactly be enjoying myself.

[But she wouldn't be depending on someone.]

[noreason]

[He chuckles.] I think that goes without saying.

[Then he sighs.] This is going to take forever. I know a way to make it go faster, but I think that would be cheating.

[choosetruth]

All things considered? I'm okay with cheating.

[noreason]

I'm not sure this place is, though.

[He still stops and examines the walls of the maze.]

If I can climb up to the top of a wall, I should be able to see out over the whole thing.

[He is capable of a lot of physical feats, but walls that are too slick or too high aren't going to allow that kind of thing.]

[choosetruth]

Do it. [She doesn't care what the place is okay with or not. Anything to get them out of here faster.] If you can do it, it's fair game.

[noreason]

[Naoki nods and steps away from her. Crouching down a little to gather himself, he springs upward. The wall doesn't look too high, so all he needs is a good handhold and he can pull himself the rest of the way up.

That proves more difficult in practice than in theory. The wall is slick, and though he manages to catch the top of it, it takes more work than he'd expected to pull himself up to the top so he can look around.

A moment later, he drops back down beside Georgia.]

I can't tell how big it is. It's like a hologram or something - it's like it changes when I tilt my head.

[choosetruth]

Really? [She reaches out to touch the wall, but it's solid enough under her hand.] We're supposed to find our way out of a maze that keeps changing? Fuck that. [She starts walking, one hand on the wall, not waiting for Naoki to catch up. It's not like his vision is doing much to help them, apparently.]

[noreason]

I don't know if it's changing. It's like a mirage.

[He jogs a couple steps to catch up with her.]

So what exactly do you want to do about it?

[choosetruth]

Well, it sounds like your eyes aren't really helping much, then. [She continues walking, her hand against the side of the wall.] Which means that maybe my… situation isn't as much of a problem as it seems. I just need to figure out what can lead us out.

[She's at her best when she's hunting for the solution to a problem. Usually it's a story, but right now it's a path through a maze. And as her mind and body prime themselves for the hunt, she suddenly finds herself on all fours, her eyes still weak in the light but not burning as much as they should be.

And there's a smell in the air rolling out in front of her like a red carpet. It smells like home. Like Shaun. And she knows without a doubt that this is the way through the maze. She looks back at Naoki and jerks her brand new fox head, then starts trotting down the path, making sure she stays slow enough for him to keep up.]

[noreason]

[...Wut.

Yeah, she's definitely a fox now. He jogs after her, perhaps not as fast as a fox, but with as much stamina.]

Okay, I'm just going to leave this to you.

[choosetruth]

[She glances back at him, cocking her head in a way that says clearly that she generally expects as much, then keeps moving.

She can worry about how and why she's a fox suddenly later.]