dramatispersonae | ACE'S HEART

The chains lead you through an open doorway into a small side room, plainly but expensively decorated…once. It's now been absolutely trashed, wallpaper scarred and peeling off the walls, though it appears to be mostly intact in one of the back corners. The floor covered in bits of shattered glass, crushed porcelain, and shards of wood. The wall opposite the doorway is dominated by the remains of a portrait large enough to depict a life-sized standing figure, though the canvas has been too badly shredded to make out if that was indeed what it once depicted.

What furniture there was in the room has long since been hacked to pieces and used to fuel a small fire that burns as embers in one corner of the room. The only whole piece of furniture left is a plain wooden chair that's facing the doorway. Bound to this chair is a man who has been so heavily and tightly bound with chains that his body has been almost entirely hidden beneath them; the only part visible of him is his lower face, and the gag stuffed in his mouth. The chain that led you into the room merges seamlessly into the mass. Miniscule clinks as he struggles under the chains fill the room's otherwise silent air.

...I can't imagine this is good.

[moves through the room carefully, avoiding touching any of the mess, approaching the bound figure]

Can you hear me?

The clinking stops for a moment as the figure under the chains stills, and then starts up again.

[sighs and reaches for the gag]

It is knotted to one side, but the knot is easy to undo.

[can manage that then, at least]

Better?

The figure under the chains coughs and says, voice raspy, "That fucking bitch--!"

The struggle resumes.

...She's the one who did this.

[not quite asking a question]

"Hrrrngh..." He pauses briefly, panting. "She's the chains."

I see... What happened?

"She did. No. The whole fucking game did. That fucking game--!"

He continues to struggle against the chains.

[Sup. I am him. What in the hell is going on?]

[...okay, what the hell is going on here]

The bound Ace has continue the struggle, oblivious to Zero's arrival, for all that he makes no headway whatsoever.

[Sob. That sentence should be "I am here."

Eyes darkening quickly though, as realization dawns on him.]

... Two sides at war with each other. Acceptance and rebellion.

That's why he called him pathetic.

"If you want to talk to an asshole, sure."

Don't be so mean to yourself. You'll hurt your feelings.

Ace snorts. "Who cares about that piece of shit?"

Clearly not you.

What happens if either of you dies?

"Who wants to know?"

Someone who wants to know if it'll help or not.

"It'll change things. That's all I know."

Suit yourself.

[HEADING TO THE OTHER DOORWAY INSTEAD /o/]

To the LEFT SIDEROOM you go.

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