[i think you should slam dunk her in there. just really go for it.
no, they walk in, and the arrows do little dink dink dink noises as they clatter onto the tiles. the music gets a little louder, the further rondo steps in. and then...
ashlyn, in the mirror, you see - your friends. ben, aiden, taylor, tyler, and logan are all chilling at a table at the park, chatting. they've got sodas and lunch, and it looks like they're having a spirited discussion, arguing about something in the way friends do. aiden laughs loudly at something, shoving at tyler, who gives him a disgruntled look. the others are grinning, checking their phones. it's just a normal day. they're just hanging out. and there's space for you, of course there is. there's an empty space they've left for you, like they're waiting for you to get there.
taylor looks up, and waves. mouths, hey! come on! come sit. and... you want to. that feels real to you. that's what you want, right?
rondo, however, doesn't see anything in the mirrors just yet. he just hears the sound of the song getting louder, bit by bit. nice room! it's relaxing.]
You never know, the hammer could be at the bottom. [ this is a joke.
anyway rondo feels... better? he feels better! so this really is like a sacred flame. honestly, they have to take any chance they get, here, so. he wades in further, keeping an alert eye on the room around him - deep enough that the water can brush against ashlyn's leg so she can get it healed and you know. run to her friends and break my heart.
in the meantime. anything else to see in here? signs of Hammers? signs of Hope? any source of the music as far as he can tell? ]
[ .......... yeah if she gets healed she'll get down from rondo's back gently.
and then just start walking towards the mirrors. she doesn't totally trust this, because obviously this place is just showing them things to fuck with them. but. but it feels real, and looks real, and magic is just insane anyway, so—maybe? ]
One second, I need to check on something. [ very confidently, like she's just going to pick something up from nearby or something. this is no big deal, don't worry about it.
and no hammers, either! the music is really soothing, though, you kind of feel like you could just stand here in this water forever and never leave. are you really sure you want to look for a hammer? roll another d20, mr. rondo.
she is healed! ash's leg slowly heals up, and she can absolutely walk right into the mirror if that's what she wants to do. it's natural. like she belongs here, because she does, right? this is home, and all of her friends whoop and holler when they see her, beckoning her over. what are they gonna do today, ashlyn? what's your ideal day look like?]
FUCK YOU THERE IS SO MUCH HOPE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M A PROTAGONIST AND I TOLD THAT NICE YELLING LADY I'D HELP HER!!!!!!
anyway. wow, yeah, this water is so nice! but his injuries are healed now and he's a fire guy, so, he's not going to stay in the water. no, he has a hammer to look for! he's gonna wade over to the edge if he can. ]
[ she doesn't respond to rondo. it's fine she's just going to see her stupid friends at the park and get out of here and not have to worry about being sacrificed to a cult or dying or being in hell. look they're even in a better situation than she left them in. this is great.
[he can wade over to the edge! just roll a d20 for me every time you get further into the water to make it easier. for now, he's able to see down into the bottom of the pool. it looks like there might be something at the very bottom of it. you have to dive, though.
ashlyn on the other hand is super gone. she's just straight up in the mirror with her friends, and the world is great. they drag her in, laughing and joking - tell her there isn't anything to worry about. where have you been? you just missed the whole solution to the phantom problem. it's alright, now.
she gets a text, at some point. her parents, checking in on her, just to make sure she comes home at a decent hour. she's got school tomorrow. there's a math test that she's got, and she has to be prepared for it. taylor nudges her at some point and asks if ash is down to go explore the city on the weekend. maybe they can drag the boys along and get lunch or something, should be fun.
it's really tiring, though, being here. it's perfect, it really is, but she's a little tired.]
[ see okay he would normally dive for the Thing. that's probably important and only visible because of a nat 20! normally, he would immediately do that, but the lack of response from ashlyn, who scolded him in the first place to be careful, means he is not going to do that. so instead of going deeper, he stops.
and looks up, instead, across the way to where ashlyn was walking. can he like. see her? is she literally in the mirror. what is happening with the ashlyn situation because that really determines the course of action here ]
[ hanging out with her friends is always tiring. they all have way more energy than she does; just listening to them play-fight and real-fight back and forth is exhausting, even when she stays out of it and just watches. but they're safe. that's the most important thing. her parents are okay. her friends are okay. school is... normal.
so what if she's tired?
the phantom dimension had added an extra seven hours of being awake to every single day. she's used to tired. all of them are. she'll just make sure to sleep really well. maybe take a nap or something.
[the way sisi has gotten another nat 20 means that he's kind of just fine, and the music is sort of annoying? squawky, in a sense. but he stops, and looks back, and he can see like... movement in the mirror from where he's standing. it's hard to see if she's in there because she's gone in so deep, but where the fuck else would she have gone, honestly, there's only one door in and out of this place.
she's tired, but that's normal. it's alright, it's easily fixed. they crawl together and take a little nap, and it's the best nap you've ever taken. it's comfortable and for the first time in a while, there's no phantom dimension. just a restful slumber surrounded by her friends.
for... a long time. an hour. six hours. a day. three days. a week. a month. she can't seem to wake up. she's with her friends and she will be here forever with them. they don't want her to leave. it's a struggle to even think about wanting to. in fact, it's a wonderful, boring blur. you've never been happier.
time passes. eventually, you lose a sense of what time even is as a concept. it's just bliss. for millennia, until the stars blink out. here and yesterday and now and two weeks ago and forty years in the future and all at once, you're happy, in this pile of your friends, and you don't need to go anywhere.
well okay listen he's getting out of the water. sorry ashlyn we don't do The World Is Perfect in this house!!! the world can't be perfect, that's what lets it exist. he's hoisting himself up and out of the pool, ignoring the squawky music, and running straight for the mirror she was staring into, banging his fist into it. and hard. and hey, you know what he's really good at?
[ in the middle of whatever stupid activity of the day she's got going on with her friends, ashlyn kind of... tips her head?
her hearing is still as sensitive as ever, but now that the phantoms are gone, she hasn't heard something like this in a long time. something that sounds... off. familiar, in a weird way, but distant and muffled.
tinnitus, maybe. hallucinations. wouldn't be the first time.
she watches her friends for a moment, trying to see if they heard it too without having to ask. ]
[well you see when he bangs his fist on the mirror, it goes through. so he slaps his hand against nothing and stumbles right into the mirror itself. he does in fact yell ashlyn's name, though, not a single thing could stop him from doing that. and you know? it reaches her.
because what happens is he shouts so loudly that it interrupts the music. the squawky singing that was so soothing not so long ago stops, abruptly. there's a noise behind him that sounds like someone clearing their throat in annoyed way, and then - rondo stumbles forward into this park with happy go lucky teens and nearly eats shit, because someone has kicked him in the back to knock him fully into the mirror.
when he looks, he'll see a familiar face. stern, brushing his white cloak off, not a single perfect silver hair out of place. sazanatos watches him impassively, his... wings? his feathery brown and black wings fluttering behind him. that doesn't seem quite right.
ashlyn looks at her friends, and none of them are paying attention, except for aiden. who is staring over her shoulder at the guy that unceremoniously got kicked through a portal into the grass.]
well okay, rondo has started to understand what the fuck is going on. it's like erin's song the other day. this would be great except for the fact that he's supposed to be on the other side of the mirror.
as he gets his bearings, he rolls to his feet, axe immediately in hand, turns his head, and - just. stops.
it's been - aside from this week of sharing memories, rondo can't remember the last time he saw sazantos' face. bright blue eyes, features carved out of marble. the white cloak he spent so much of his life staring at the back of. the sight of him, as himself, almost knocks rondo right back on his ass.
he thinks to himself, dazed, no, wings? those should be white, and then catches himself, because while his initial instinct is to immediately be gay (unfortunate), his second sazantos instinct is the one that should probably be more accurate, which is to grip his axe a little tighter and say, slowly: ] ... Sir Sazantos.
[ as he pulls the axe up into a fighter's position. it's not his sword. he barely knows how to use it. but he knows that sazantos is dangerous normally, let alone... let alone if he might be some kind of illusion, too. ]
[ she's been in this haze for such a long time that she almost can't process what she's looking at, when rondo shows up. but the lull of paradise can't soften the edges of someone holding a weapon. the artifice feels just a little bit fractured, and it's like digging her fingers under it to pry the rest of it away. it's been so long since she had to fight, but she never forgot. all the bad things, all the danger.
all the danger that everyone from the village was in together, that everyone needs to get out of. together.
dawning realization is a miserable feeling. waking up from a good dream sucks worse than anything. she looks at aiden and just stands up abruptly. ]
I have to go. [ for some reason, mostly convinced this is an illusion, she still needs to tell him that. ]
[ he is not letting go of this axe. even if - there's exhaustion behind his eyes. isn't he tired? is he the one who's tired?
for a moment, things feel - normal. just, utterly, completely normal. like he wanted so badly when he first heard the news, that it was all just a horrible nightmare, that he'd wake up like this, to sir sazantos scolding him for being one second too late to morning training, to working together to protect the continent. that sazantos would yell at him - or that he'd say, i trust you to have my back, like he did in berecain, words that rondo wanted to engrave on his very heart and soul because they meant so much to him.
but if things are normal, then...
maybe he is tired.
rondo's eyes drop to the ground, and he says, very, very quietly ] You're....
and then just absolutely fucking LAUNCHES himself at sazantos (not sazantos?), swinging his axe in a great, wide strike, and shouts at the top of his lungs sorry ashlyn ]
[ well she was going to come maybe help rondo out somehow. (how.) but instead she stands up and takes like two steps in his direction before being temporarily immobilized
she's proud of rondo but also somehow not.......... ]
[oop. there goes ashlyn. her friends all jump up, startled, and try to reach for her, making sure she's okay. all of them are smiling.
for rondo, though.
in another world, in another universe, sazantos would've dodged him. scoffed, rolling his eyes. do you always shout a warning right before you come at someone, you moron? not very wide open after that. maybe he would've slapped at the back of rondo's head, even, unimpressed as always. just like normal. just like the way it was supposed to be. a world, kept safe by the guardians of the flame, sacred and forever burning with what is right.
what happens instead is rondo slices him completely in half.
it's a messy affair. the axe goes through sazantos without much resistance, but the thing is that violence like this is never sanitized and easy. the slice catches him at the torso, right below his arm, and goes diagonal, down to his hip. his organs spill from his chest cavity, only just barely caught in places by his ribs. blood splatters across rondo's face, across his clothes. and maybe the worst part about it is sazantos's expression.
betrayed. you... you did this. why would you do this?
he chokes, blood gurgling up from his throat. dies slow, scrabbling at the ground. it's undignified. his eyes are wide and - maybe a little terrified.
it startles him, to say the least. sure, he doesn't know how to use an axe, but - that's the thing. it's sazantos. it doesn't matter. every single time he's launched himself at him yelling, he's blocked him, sent him thrown backwards, rolled his eyes. now, of course, things are different. now, this is what's expected.
now, as the flameguard, he has to kill him. it's the way things have to be. sazantos, armed with the accursed flame, and rondo, the sacred. and though he's fought him, it's never once been easy. he's never, never once, been able to just land a hit with no struggle, and not - not like this. the axe grinds in and his breath catches in horror.
blood splatters the front of his clothing.
the betrayal is - it's, that's not how this goes, that's not. he wouldn't - he'd never - the scrabbling, the fear, that's not -- (and how can he know, that someday, sazantos willl say, i don't want to die?)
he yanks the axe free as fast as he can, stunned, and takes a step backwards, horrified. ]
Sa.. [ no - no, no, that's not - this is how it's supposed to be - ] Sir Sazantos.
[ this is how it has to be. this is what he's going to have to do. this was -
he stumbles back, eyes wet with tears, and just - he just stares. ]
[ ashlyn isn't used to seeing this kind of violence. it's not her first time seeing someone get hurt, and bad. but she's far from desensitized to it. it's not usually this... much, maybe.
once she recovers her footing, she moves to go stand next to rondo, reaching out to touch his arm gently. ]
Not real. Come on.
[ she doesn't want to look back at her friends. she's afraid they'll still be smiling. ]
[you had a chance to be happy. your hopes, your dreams. you could have had them.
there's this strange sensation as the both of you deal with this violence - like something was in place. something was trying to make sure you got your happy ending, but not any more. you've broken something. or... someone has, it wasn't your decision. and now you'll never have it again.
sazantos chokes, a rattle of a breath, and then his eyes go dull. he doesn't even get last words. that's not how reality goes. you don't get closure. you just watch someone you love die unceremonious at your hand. the music is gone now, and the pleasure chamber is empty, save for the pool. the water is still and tepid.
ashlyn doesn't look back. her friends are so, so quiet. deathly quiet.
do you leave the mirror? it's open. there's a way out.]
[ it's not real. it's not real, because it just can't be. this isn't how this is supposed to go. rondo can't - he can't let himself get into it. he can't. they're - they have to go somewhere. they have to walk the right path. hope - hope needs them. and rondo needs his hope. he has to hold onto the path that he has to walk, he has to do the right thing. no matter how hard it is. no matter how awful it is. no matter how much it hurts.
rondo kneels down. blood on his knees, blood on his shaking hands, and he reaches... and he closes sazantos' blue, blue eyes. something he won't get to at home, he doesn't think. he's not even sure if there'll be a body left to bury. perfect worlds don't exist. reality is what it is. messy, ugly, beautiful, full of love and hate and greed and desire and selflessness and kindness. reality is what it is. ]
... I'm sorry. [ rondo says, very, very quietly.
and eyes wet, he stands up, and he wipes his arm across his face, and he squares his shoulders, and he waits for ashlyn to catch up so they can head out of this awful mirror together. ]
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no, they walk in, and the arrows do little dink dink dink noises as they clatter onto the tiles. the music gets a little louder, the further rondo steps in. and then...
ashlyn, in the mirror, you see - your friends. ben, aiden, taylor, tyler, and logan are all chilling at a table at the park, chatting. they've got sodas and lunch, and it looks like they're having a spirited discussion, arguing about something in the way friends do. aiden laughs loudly at something, shoving at tyler, who gives him a disgruntled look. the others are grinning, checking their phones. it's just a normal day. they're just hanging out. and there's space for you, of course there is. there's an empty space they've left for you, like they're waiting for you to get there.
taylor looks up, and waves. mouths, hey! come on! come sit. and... you want to. that feels real to you. that's what you want, right?
rondo, however, doesn't see anything in the mirrors just yet. he just hears the sound of the song getting louder, bit by bit. nice room! it's relaxing.]
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anyway rondo feels... better? he feels better! so this really is like a sacred flame. honestly, they have to take any chance they get, here, so. he wades in further, keeping an alert eye on the room around him - deep enough that the water can brush against ashlyn's leg so she can get it healed and you know. run to her friends and break my heart.
in the meantime. anything else to see in here? signs of Hammers? signs of Hope? any source of the music as far as he can tell? ]
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and then just start walking towards the mirrors. she doesn't totally trust this, because obviously this place is just showing them things to fuck with them. but. but it feels real, and looks real, and magic is just insane anyway, so—maybe? ]
One second, I need to check on something. [ very confidently, like she's just going to pick something up from nearby or something. this is no big deal, don't worry about it.
let me in ]
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and no hammers, either! the music is really soothing, though, you kind of feel like you could just stand here in this water forever and never leave. are you really sure you want to look for a hammer? roll another d20, mr. rondo.
she is healed! ash's leg slowly heals up, and she can absolutely walk right into the mirror if that's what she wants to do. it's natural. like she belongs here, because she does, right? this is home, and all of her friends whoop and holler when they see her, beckoning her over. what are they gonna do today, ashlyn? what's your ideal day look like?]
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FUCK YOU THERE IS SO MUCH HOPE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M A PROTAGONIST AND I TOLD THAT NICE YELLING LADY I'D HELP HER!!!!!!
anyway. wow, yeah, this water is so nice! but his injuries are healed now and he's a fire guy, so, he's not going to stay in the water. no, he has a hammer to look for! he's gonna wade over to the edge if he can. ]
Miss Ashlyn....?
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bye ]
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ashlyn on the other hand is super gone. she's just straight up in the mirror with her friends, and the world is great. they drag her in, laughing and joking - tell her there isn't anything to worry about. where have you been? you just missed the whole solution to the phantom problem. it's alright, now.
she gets a text, at some point. her parents, checking in on her, just to make sure she comes home at a decent hour. she's got school tomorrow. there's a math test that she's got, and she has to be prepared for it. taylor nudges her at some point and asks if ash is down to go explore the city on the weekend. maybe they can drag the boys along and get lunch or something, should be fun.
it's really tiring, though, being here. it's perfect, it really is, but she's a little tired.]
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and looks up, instead, across the way to where ashlyn was walking. can he like. see her? is she literally in the mirror. what is happening with the ashlyn situation because that really determines the course of action here ]
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so what if she's tired?
the phantom dimension had added an extra seven hours of being awake to every single day. she's used to tired. all of them are. she'll just make sure to sleep really well. maybe take a nap or something.
obnoxiously shoves more art at you. ]
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she's tired, but that's normal. it's alright, it's easily fixed. they crawl together and take a little nap, and it's the best nap you've ever taken. it's comfortable and for the first time in a while, there's no phantom dimension. just a restful slumber surrounded by her friends.
for... a long time. an hour. six hours. a day. three days. a week. a month. she can't seem to wake up. she's with her friends and she will be here forever with them. they don't want her to leave. it's a struggle to even think about wanting to. in fact, it's a wonderful, boring blur. you've never been happier.
time passes. eventually, you lose a sense of what time even is as a concept. it's just bliss. for millennia, until the stars blink out. here and yesterday and now and two weeks ago and forty years in the future and all at once, you're happy, in this pile of your friends, and you don't need to go anywhere.
for rondo, this is less than thirty seconds.]
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well okay listen he's getting out of the water. sorry ashlyn we don't do The World Is Perfect in this house!!! the world can't be perfect, that's what lets it exist. he's hoisting himself up and out of the pool, ignoring the squawky music, and running straight for the mirror she was staring into, banging his fist into it. and hard. and hey, you know what he's really good at?
being loud. ]
MISS ASHLYN!!!
[ GET THE FUCK UP ]
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her hearing is still as sensitive as ever, but now that the phantoms are gone, she hasn't heard something like this in a long time. something that sounds... off. familiar, in a weird way, but distant and muffled.
tinnitus, maybe. hallucinations. wouldn't be the first time.
she watches her friends for a moment, trying to see if they heard it too without having to ask. ]
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because what happens is he shouts so loudly that it interrupts the music. the squawky singing that was so soothing not so long ago stops, abruptly. there's a noise behind him that sounds like someone clearing their throat in annoyed way, and then - rondo stumbles forward into this park with happy go lucky teens and nearly eats shit, because someone has kicked him in the back to knock him fully into the mirror.
when he looks, he'll see a familiar face. stern, brushing his white cloak off, not a single perfect silver hair out of place. sazanatos watches him impassively, his... wings? his feathery brown and black wings fluttering behind him. that doesn't seem quite right.
ashlyn looks at her friends, and none of them are paying attention, except for aiden. who is staring over her shoulder at the guy that unceremoniously got kicked through a portal into the grass.]
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well okay, rondo has started to understand what the fuck is going on. it's like erin's song the other day. this would be great except for the fact that he's supposed to be on the other side of the mirror.
as he gets his bearings, he rolls to his feet, axe immediately in hand, turns his head, and - just. stops.
it's been - aside from this week of sharing memories, rondo can't remember the last time he saw sazantos' face. bright blue eyes, features carved out of marble. the white cloak he spent so much of his life staring at the back of. the sight of him, as himself, almost knocks rondo right back on his ass.
he thinks to himself, dazed, no, wings? those should be white, and then catches himself, because while his initial instinct is to immediately be gay (unfortunate), his second sazantos instinct is the one that should probably be more accurate, which is to grip his axe a little tighter and say, slowly: ] ... Sir Sazantos.
[ as he pulls the axe up into a fighter's position. it's not his sword. he barely knows how to use it. but he knows that sazantos is dangerous normally, let alone... let alone if he might be some kind of illusion, too. ]
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all the danger that everyone from the village was in together, that everyone needs to get out of. together.
dawning realization is a miserable feeling. waking up from a good dream sucks worse than anything. she looks at aiden and just stands up abruptly. ]
I have to go. [ for some reason, mostly convinced this is an illusion, she still needs to tell him that. ]
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What? Really? It's just some crazy guy.
[don't pay him any mind. stay here. you could just stay here.
sazantos, spelled properly this time, takes a step into the mirror. raises an eyebrow. ]
What are you doing? Don't lift that at me, you don't even know how to use it. [a short, irritable sigh.] We have work to do. Cease being an idiot.
[and for a second, rondo feels tired.]
1/2
for a moment, things feel - normal. just, utterly, completely normal. like he wanted so badly when he first heard the news, that it was all just a horrible nightmare, that he'd wake up like this, to sir sazantos scolding him for being one second too late to morning training, to working together to protect the continent. that sazantos would yell at him - or that he'd say, i trust you to have my back, like he did in berecain, words that rondo wanted to engrave on his very heart and soul because they meant so much to him.
but if things are normal, then...
maybe he is tired.
rondo's eyes drop to the ground, and he says, very, very quietly ] You're....
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and then just absolutely fucking LAUNCHES himself at sazantos (not sazantos?), swinging his axe in a great, wide strike, and shouts at the top of his lungs sorry ashlyn ]
YOU'RE WIDE OPEN!!!!
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she's proud of rondo but also somehow not.......... ]
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for rondo, though.
in another world, in another universe, sazantos would've dodged him. scoffed, rolling his eyes. do you always shout a warning right before you come at someone, you moron? not very wide open after that. maybe he would've slapped at the back of rondo's head, even, unimpressed as always. just like normal. just like the way it was supposed to be. a world, kept safe by the guardians of the flame, sacred and forever burning with what is right.
what happens instead is rondo slices him completely in half.
it's a messy affair. the axe goes through sazantos without much resistance, but the thing is that violence like this is never sanitized and easy. the slice catches him at the torso, right below his arm, and goes diagonal, down to his hip. his organs spill from his chest cavity, only just barely caught in places by his ribs. blood splatters across rondo's face, across his clothes. and maybe the worst part about it is sazantos's expression.
betrayed. you... you did this. why would you do this?
he chokes, blood gurgling up from his throat. dies slow, scrabbling at the ground. it's undignified. his eyes are wide and - maybe a little terrified.
weren't you supposed to save him, rondo?]
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it startles him, to say the least. sure, he doesn't know how to use an axe, but - that's the thing. it's sazantos. it doesn't matter. every single time he's launched himself at him yelling, he's blocked him, sent him thrown backwards, rolled his eyes. now, of course, things are different. now, this is what's expected.
now, as the flameguard, he has to kill him. it's the way things have to be. sazantos, armed with the accursed flame, and rondo, the sacred. and though he's fought him, it's never once been easy. he's never, never once, been able to just land a hit with no struggle, and not - not like this. the axe grinds in and his breath catches in horror.
blood splatters the front of his clothing.
the betrayal is - it's, that's not how this goes, that's not. he wouldn't - he'd never - the scrabbling, the fear, that's not -- (and how can he know, that someday, sazantos willl say, i don't want to die?)
he yanks the axe free as fast as he can, stunned, and takes a step backwards, horrified. ]
Sa.. [ no - no, no, that's not - this is how it's supposed to be - ] Sir Sazantos.
[ this is how it has to be. this is what he's going to have to do. this was -
he stumbles back, eyes wet with tears, and just - he just stares. ]
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once she recovers her footing, she moves to go stand next to rondo, reaching out to touch his arm gently. ]
Not real. Come on.
[ she doesn't want to look back at her friends. she's afraid they'll still be smiling. ]
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there's this strange sensation as the both of you deal with this violence - like something was in place. something was trying to make sure you got your happy ending, but not any more. you've broken something. or... someone has, it wasn't your decision. and now you'll never have it again.
sazantos chokes, a rattle of a breath, and then his eyes go dull. he doesn't even get last words. that's not how reality goes. you don't get closure. you just watch someone you love die unceremonious at your hand. the music is gone now, and the pleasure chamber is empty, save for the pool. the water is still and tepid.
ashlyn doesn't look back. her friends are so, so quiet. deathly quiet.
do you leave the mirror? it's open. there's a way out.]
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rondo kneels down. blood on his knees, blood on his shaking hands, and he reaches... and he closes sazantos' blue, blue eyes. something he won't get to at home, he doesn't think. he's not even sure if there'll be a body left to bury. perfect worlds don't exist. reality is what it is. messy, ugly, beautiful, full of love and hate and greed and desire and selflessness and kindness. reality is what it is. ]
... I'm sorry. [ rondo says, very, very quietly.
and eyes wet, he stands up, and he wipes his arm across his face, and he squares his shoulders, and he waits for ashlyn to catch up so they can head out of this awful mirror together. ]
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but she manages. ]
Let's go.
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