twilight_boy | Heart Game!

Characters: Heart gamers
Location: Heart
Time: Day ??, Time ?? (Will get placed into timeline when done)
Description:

[Okay, so here's what went down. At some point, Roxas took a bad memory that dovetailed badly with some of the other stuff going on in his head. Ven felt something go really wrong and contacted Dream and the rest of you ASAP. Dream allowed an emergency heart game to take place, giving you all an additional task as a quest:

Everyone will get pens and stickers that they will write on. Each person running will have five stickers that they have to use to try to identify something in the heart. It can be used on people, objects, the air, whatever rolls for you, so, for example, "I am going to put this sticker on Roxas, because he is clearly Roxas" or "This stone must be a stone and not a representation of his deep, weighing sense of guilt".

Guesses can be whatever the character thinks the object is. There is no limit to guesses! The catch is that the sticker will shrivel up if their guess is not correct. They cannot use the sticker again if this happens. If it is correct, then it will remain on the object with no effects whatsoever upon Roxas' heart. (Halfway answers which you might run into get shriveled up but don't come off nor do they reveal the whole message of what they were supposed to be.) If they want to use another sticker on the same object . . . No deal. Likewise, people cannot guess on the same object that someone else has.]

(OOC Note: Please join #twilightheart)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

brotagonist

Don't apologize... I have an idea.

[going to the other side now!]

From:

twilight_boy

As you get closer, you can identify the bodies. Lightning, Viridian, Ginger and Kakashi lie sprawled on the glass, looking like they’ve been crushed to death. You can also see a blood-spattered pocket watch in the same pile. Off to the side, you can see Ven’s body. There are no apparent injuries, but he’s just as dead as the rest of them.

There is a single figure up on the scaffold. It’s Roxas, dressed in a blood-spattered Emerald uniform from Beauty’s realm. His arms have been bound behind his back, and a noose made of chains loops around his neck. His eyes are closed, but unlike everyone else here, you can see that he’s breathing.

Jagged chains pierce the glass on the side of the platform, hooking into it like burrs. The chains lead off into the distance, toward what looks like another platform - one choked by a smoke-like darkness.

From:

brotagonist

Roxas!

[running to him first]

From:

twilight_boy

[he opens his eyes as you run up to him] Lloyd? What're you doing here?

From:

brotagonist

I think I'm supposed to be here to help. What the hell — why're you all chained up like that?

From:

twilight_boy

"Cause this is my fault." [He says it matter-of-factly]

From:

brotagonist

What? How?

From:

twilight_boy

"Remember that Jabberwock game? I convinced everyone to keep going with putting points on ourselves."

From:

brotagonist

Roxas...

Not everyone wanted to?

From:

twilight_boy

"No, they did... But I'm the one who pushed for it. And no one asked Ven, but he died anyway."

From:

brotagonist

If they were willing, they were willing. Let's put Ven aside for a second — did anyone feel shoved into it?

From:

twilight_boy

"I don't know. I don't think so...

But Lightning was new, and she definitely didn't want to do anything like that ever again, after that."

From:

brotagonist

If she thought she was okay with it and decided she wasn't afterwards, that's one thing... that's not your fault, Roxas.

From:

twilight_boy

"Still feels like it was, though."

From:

brotagonist

Still not looking at Ven... they all decided, Roxas. You can't take that choice away from them 'cause you feel bad that it happened. Feel bad that it happened, yeah, sure... that part is natural. I feel bad it happened, too.

From:

twilight_boy

...You're right. I know you're right.

From:

brotagonist

Sometimes it's hard to remember.

From:

twilight_boy

Yeah. It felt like a relief, being able to do that, at the time. But everything went wrong.

From:

brotagonist

Everything...?

From:

twilight_boy

"Dying sucked. And then Ven died. And then half the team wound up fighting afterward. We're okay now, I mean. Not still fighting."

From:

brotagonist

[nods]

Ven dying wasn't your fault. You guys didn't know.

...there's a difference between something being your fault and being your responsibility.

From:

twilight_boy

"What do you mean?"

From:

brotagonist

What you said about having to fix things afterwards, and people fighting, and Ven dying... you were responsible for that, because either it happened when you did stuff or because it was just your business to try to fix. Obviously you have a responsibility to try to fix stuff... but that doesn't make it something to blame yourself for.

From:

twilight_boy

"What if it's something I can't fix?"

From:

brotagonist

You do the best you can and keep moving forward. I mean — I'm not saying that trying to fix it makes it not your fault. I'm saying it wasn't your fault in the first place, even if you're responsible for trying to fix the mess.