Riful's Heart.

[dramatispersonae]

[everything goes away.]

[sight, sound, taste, touch, smell - you lose yourself to the nothing that waits through the doorway. do you have a body? a mind? what is such a thing? for a dizzying moment, you might not even be sure you have a "you" to identify these concepts with.]

[then, wrenching and violent, the confusion of the senses pummels itself back inside you like seasoning pounded into raw meat, and you're left, painfully sensate, on an open plain.]

Comments

[youhadmefromhello]

[as soon as he sees Sakura closing in, Goku jumps over the monster and twists, summoning Nyoibou and swinging with all his strength at the back of it's head]

[amivoringyou]

NO! I'M GONNA KILL YOU--!

[but his momentum is too much, and that, more than anything, sends him roaring through the wall of the house and down the side of the mountain, his "YOU LITTLE BASTARRRRRRRRD" Dopplering before cutting out with a titanic THUD.]

[faintly, though, from below, you hear:] ....ow.

[youhadmefromhello]

[peers over the edge]

. . . wow, it really worked.

[medpacksapunch]

[panting, still running on adrenaline-- then blinks, dropping the rod]

It... it really did...

[youhadmefromhello]

Wanna go see if that guy's okay?

[medpacksapunch]

...Yeah. If anybody survived, then we should at least try and-- do whatever it is we can for them.

[...kicks a small rock off the edge of the cliff, for good measure]

[amivoringyou]

[from down below:]

[CLINK]

...HEY! Why does everybody always have to pick on me?!

[youhadmefromhello]

'Kay, let's go.

[WE'RE NOW . . . GOING BACK, YEAAAAH]

[medpacksapunch]

[follows him back towards the cabin, a little drained now that the horror and the adrenaline has worn off]

Um... sorry-- what's your name? I don't even know...

[youhadmefromhello]

—oh, that's right. 'M Sunlight.

[medpacksapunch]

I'm Tsunami. Nice to...meet you. Er, I guess.

[youhadmefromhello]

'Snot the best place to meet people, huh.

[medpacksapunch]

Not really.

[youhadmefromhello]

Well . . . we just gotta get outta here or do somethin' and we're done. I think. It's different every time.

[medpacksapunch]

Okay... um, I guess I'll keep my eye open for anything that might look like a way out.

[reaches ...what's left of the house, peering down into it]

[amivoringyou]

[not!Sion is still hanging there, pierced through with rods, hir breathing shallow, hir eyes unfocused]

[xe is barely hanging on to sanity, much less consciousness.]

[youhadmefromhello]

[. . . oh that's lovely]

What should we . . .

[medpacksapunch]

[wwwwwwwish xe didn't look so much like Sion]

I... I don't know any-- healing or first aid or anything. Do-- do you...?

[youhadmefromhello]

[shakes his head]

'M not a healer.

[medpacksapunch]

[...swallows, curling her hands into fists again]

...Do you think-- should we just...kill him..?

[amivoringyou]

[xe's eyes flicker, slits ... ffffocusing on one of you, it doesn't matter which.]

Uhhh ... who ...?

[youhadmefromhello]

I don't—

[o-oh xe's talking]

. . . um. Hi?

[medpacksapunch]

[--is moving as soon as xe speaks, almost unconsciously, stumbling down into the room fully, her previous train of thought discarded and forgotten]

--Sion..!

[amivoringyou]

Wuh ...

[blinks at ... with almost no recognition at first, then a faint ... spark ...]

Do I ...

[youhadmefromhello]

[. . . I will let Sakura talk to you while I look for a way to get you down]