Once Upon a Multiverse

Long ago, the multiverse, and the multiverses contained within it, were at risk of collapse. Delegates from various universes met, trying to see if it could be prevented. But only one world seemed safe from this threat. While they theorized that the collapse could be stopped or reversed, something had to be done first. Representatives from different worlds were sent to this safe space, the intention being that when the time was right, these brave souls would be ready to save the multiverse from destruction. Yet there was one unforeseen consequence of this dimension-hopping. These representatives had their memories altered, and they seemed to believe themselves to be perfectly ordinary human residents of a small town called Summerside, Wisconsin. They had never felt at any point that this may not be the case- until now, when dreams begin to pour in that feel more like memories of a bygone era....

---

Summerside, Wisconsin, was an unremarkable town. Asides from a Walmart in the nearest town, which was only slightly larger, there was never much to do. The annual football game against the rival high school team, the Burnt Corn Bearcats, was usually the biggest draw unless you weren’t a sports fan, in which case you’d attend the annual spring musical (which had been My Fair Lady this year.)

There was a decent-sized park on the north side of town; a small playground and a baseball diamond and a few picnic tables. Nothing to write home about. If you had any sort of routine medical help you needed, there was always Dr. Ariana Glace, a resident “family doctor”, and a few of her coworkers. What little crime may have occurred was usually kept in check by the local police force, including Officer Francine Noir.

At the present moment, it was June, and dawn was beginning to break. Many of the residents had mentioned having strange dreams, but you hadn’t thought much of it until now, when you’d awakened from a bizarre dream to find a strange note on your bedroom floor...

---

Ariana could see the streets of Manhattan all around her. Achingly familiar.

She knew this would surely draw him out.

She could feel the icy shards forming in her hands, and then, with a deft movement of her wrist, slicing into the man’s skin, like a death by a thousand cuts.

Another one bites the dust.

She strode towards another man, forcefully pulling him into a kiss...and siphoning all of his body heat, leaving him a frozen, withered husk.

This had to work. This had to catch his attention.

She needed this to work.

A third victim. Massive, four-foot icicle to the heart.

Not enough…

---

Ariana awoke with a start. She was back at home, reasonably warm, and still in her pajamas. It had been a dream.

Admittedly, many of her patients had reported having strange recurring dreams. But that wasn’t particularly her wheelhouse; at worst it was a psychiatric problem. She’d usually referred them to a psychiatrist if it was troubling them that much. But she hadn’t counted on having such a dream herself.

Frankly, it worried her. She’d pursued a career in medicine out of a desire to help others; why would her subconscious paint her killing them?

She pushed that thought aside. Best not to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

With a stretch she rose to her feet...only to find an envelope on her bedroom floor, addressed to “Dr. Ariana Glace.”

Confused as ever, she opened it.

“Meet in the park tonight and listen to what midnight tells you. All will become clear.”

Well, her office was closed by then. She supposed there was no harm in at least considering it...

Edited by Spottedleaf on Apr 6th 2020 at 5:29:06 AM

Mochizuki Household

“Hey! Give that back! That's our New Years money!”

“Shut up, brat! Unless you don't wanna wake up tomorrow!”

“Ritsu!”

“Stay away from him, punk!”

“BROTHER, NO–”

---

Mob stared blankly up at the ceiling, confused for a moment as to why the images had suddenly changed to his bedroom. Realising in an instant that he was awake, he sat up—brow furrowing a little.

Why did the next thing feel like blood?

He could practically taste it in his mouth for some reason. Iron. But as he went into the bathroom to get ready for the morning, there was nothing there. It was like a phantom effect. Why'd he even expect it in the first place?

The dream didn't fade, to his surprise. All throughout breakfast. His odd habit of checking over his spoon while eating cereal now seemed all the more stranger to him. Why did he check? It was like he was expecting it to fly out of his hand.

“Ichirō?”

That wasn't his name.

...

...no. Wait. It was.

“Yes?”

“There's a note here. Think it's for you. Just on the doorstep,” mentioned his brother, who Mob momentarily forgot the name of. Haruto. Common name. Of course it was. “Nearly stepped on it. You got a stalker or something?”

“No,” he responded, taking the note and looking over it blankly. They'd have to get to school soon, so he'd read it as they walked. “Thanks. Um... did you read it?”

“Not my problem. Unless it is a stalker. Then it'll probably be my problem later...” Haruto shrugged.

Ritsu would've read it anyway.

Mob didn't know anyone named Ritsu.

Ritsu!

Stay away from him, punk!

No one at all.

Regardless, his brain moved back on track as he read over the note. The symbols confused him for a second or two, before he recognized them as English. This always happened. Mom and Dad called it dyslexia. He wasn't sure, but he agreed with it anyway.

He didn't really get it, but it did say all would become clear. He folded the paper up, and pocketed it. He didn't talk much to his brother. He didn't talk much to him.

There was nothing to talk about. He wasn't interesting enough.

The world felt colourless.

Edited by Enirboreh on Apr 5th 2020 at 2:28:25 PM

bork

She didn't remember the mansion well, but it never looked anything like this.

The windows were shattered, the floorboards were busted, it looked like it was going to fall apart if she just stepped in the wrong place. But none of that compared to the smell of blood permeating every inch of the building.

"Dad?" she called, following the muffled sounds of voices. Part of her knew what she was going to find, but finding her dad, crumpled up in the corner, a giant scissor blade through his chest tore at her heart.

"Dad! Dad, hang on!" she begged, placing a hand on his arm. Before she could even say another word, he started to talk.

"Stop fussing and listen," he grunted through his clenched teeth, "if you want to live a peaceful life then leave here, right now. But if you want...!" she reared back as he started pulling the blade out of his chest, "to continue my fight!" he finally pulled it free and threw it into her hands, "you're going to need that!"

"Wh-what do you mean, fight?" she asked.

"If you find the other half of that scissor, you'll find my killer," her dad explained, "but a cruel fate lies in store for you."

The sound of someone moving brought her attention away from her dad, and she caught a glimpse of the person with the other half. Immediately, she jumped to her feet and yelled, "hold it!"

"Come back, Ryuko!" her father yelled after her, "let them go! I haven't told you everything!"

That was the last she heard of her dad before she left the building, just in time for it to catch on fire.

"Dad..." she whispered into the air as the fire blazed on.

---

"Dad... Dad!" Yui yelled as she launched out of bed, ready to fight... someone.

She blinked as she looked around her bedroom. "A dream?" she asked herself, clutching her blanket so tightly her knuckles went white, "why did it feel so real?"

"Miss Yui?" a normally calm and collected voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, Jeeves," she glanced over at her butler, "uh, morning?"

"Are you alright, Miss Yui?" he gestured towards his cheeks, and she copied the movement, surprised to feel wetness. Had the dream made her cry? Weird.

"I'm fine," she said, shaking it off, "just... a weird dream. Just grab my clothes, ok?"

As he got her morning routine started, she spotted a piece of paper on the ground. Weird, Jeeves would've picked it up before she went to bed. As she read it over, she only got more confused. "Tomorrow night at the park," she read under her breath, "what the hell?"

Well, she was confused, so it wouldn't hurt to show up. With a weapon, of course, since she didn't trust this as far as she could throw it.

Not that it'd be hard to throw paper... The point is, she was expecting a fight.

I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."

Guerreiro Household

With summer in full swing, all windows were open in the modest abode that Marina called home. She'd stripped herself down to her underwear before falling asleep, and switched on the old fan that rattled throughout the night, but still she awoke to an uncomfortable film of sweat coating her skin. She growled unintelligibly to herself as she rolled out her hammock, barely awake enough to stop herself from spilling across the hardwood floor.

As she had done every morning for the past month, Marina immediately made a beeline for the bathroom and flung herself under the cold shower spray. She kinda hated the whole 'sleep' process- doing nothing for six hours and then waking up all cranky and sweaty? Ugh- so she relished the chance to wash it all down the drain.

Today, though, was a little different, as Marina had experienced one of those rare dreams that stuck around long after waking up. The details of it were fuzzy, but she could remember a nasally voice rambling on about a couple of shows, shows about revolution or evangelism or something like that, and comparing their 'similar deconstructive themes of adolescence and the exploration of mental dysfunction'.

She could remember herself laughing, and saying to the voice that she had no goddamned idea what they were talking about, she just liked one of the shows for its giant robots and the other for its handsome girls, but it didn't really matter that she didn't know what the voice was talking about because she liked listening to them anyway. She could listen to their passionate spiels for hours.

Her chest panged at that. She put it down to a cramp.

Once she'd doused herself thoroughly, Marina set to making breakfast with one hand while drying herself off with the other. Why do one when you could do both, right? She was still trying to figure out a way to mix cooking together with exercise that didn't end in her splattered with crushed tomatoes.

Busy as she was marvelling at her own awesomeness, Marina didn't catch the envelope until she'd returned to her room to fetch fresh clothes. She threw on new underwear, yanked out the letter, thought to herself that the school was getting really weird with its teacher meeting times, and then flung on athletic shorts and a tank top. Next was her eyepatch, then a pair of sneaks, and before long she was locking the front door, reluctantly prepared for another day of mind-numbing paperwork.

Edited by whizzerd on Apr 6th 2020 at 11:47:23 AM

they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGob

Mama's dead.

It shouldn't be happening, it shouldn't be allowed, but she's on the floor cold and broken and not breathing and how was this happening-

"Oh, boo hoo," he says, except it's not him, it's someone else wearing his body, someone else who killed Mama. "Grow up. She'd have died anyway, who cares if it's early."

Slam. The door slammed open, and Papa is there, gasping for breath. He first sees Mama, and he screams, and then he sees his son, holding the tome that killed her. "Julius?!"

He wants to scream too, but he can't, and the world is breaking apart into darkness and freezing cold-

---

"AAAAAAAAAUGH!"

Jules gasped, sitting bolt upright in his bed. He groaned, wiping away the tearstains. "I don't even know these people," he mumbled, sliding out of bed. He'd been having these nightmares for the past week, about people he didn't know in a place he didn't recognize. If he were in school, he'd chalk it up to stress - he liked Ms. Guerreiro enough, but her classes were torture - but now he was out of school, so what gave?

"Stop," he muttered to himself. "They're just nightmares, stop thinking about them." He had the whole summer ahead of him, he couldn't waste it on thinking about dreams. Maybe if he ignored them enough, they'd go away and he wouldn't have to see a psychiatrist.

After getting ready for the day, he was headed for his bedroom door when he heard the soft crunch of stepping on paper. Jules looked down to see...well, exactly that. He picked it up and read it.

"Midnight? At the park?" He frowned. "Well...okay then."

He reached for the doorknob.

...us...

Then stopped.

Jules turned around, eyes darting back and forth for the source of the voice.

Ju...li...

He waited, but the voice didn't speak again. A now confused Jules left his room, said goodbye to his dad, then headed out into town.

"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."

OH NO NO NO,THIS IS NOT GOOD.

He started to back away from the large machine in horror and to also save his life. He could hear the panicked voices of people inside a viewing room turning into horrified screaming before being silenced by a huge explosion from one of the beams of light consuming it. But honestly, he wanted to survive! He rushed out to the large steel door keeping him locked out as he banged his fist on so those two weirdos back then could get him out.

LET ME OUT OF HERE! OPEN UP THE DOOR YOU BASTARDS! GAH I HATE YOU!

He turned his back to the huge machine as it changed from yellow to green, he could even see the concrete from the roof falling, as large green circle like shapes slowly floated about.

THIS IS A BAD EXPERIMENT! WE ARE BAD PEOPLE! WHY DID WE USHER FORTH THE GREEN APOCALYPSE?!

His thoughts were ended as a green beam hit him, and then, everything went dark.

---

"Bwah!" Ivan woke up frightened in his bed. He looked around, and, well, it's just his apartment. A apartment that doesn't really look like it fits for someone who has a Ph.D in theoretical physics, but nobody in this town has seen his genius...yet.

Ugh, man, I really need to reconsider taking LSD before going to bed. I didn't realize that even I could get a trip even during my sleep. But hey, I guess now I can confirm that you can hallucinate during a dream!

He started to get up from his bed, and going to get himself dressed.

Now that makes me wonder, what if we combine that, and lucid dreaming? I bet that would make the trippiest shit in the worl-...wait.

He just remembered seeing some kind of paper on the floor. He swore that most of his curriculum vitae were on his table. How the hell did that went all the way near his bed?

He grabbed it and looked at it.

Well. It's not my handwriting, and doesn't look like my applications, so that's sleepwalking out of my suspicion list..

He kept looking at it for a few seconds before putting it on his table.

....Now he remembers!

Johnny said he would have some good stuff pretty soon and didn't told me when! It's surprising he would have the drugs ready so soon. But I'm not sure if this midnight thing is that necessary, like, it's not like this is a spy movie to guarantee a secret name unless he is dealing with competitors who want him dead and he needs to keep his identity secret. Eh, still, can't say no to some good old oxycodone!

He then continued on to having his breakfast ready up. A sandwich with two shots of vodka. After some time, Ivan Frohman got himself dressed up before then leaving his apartment and going to the streets to go around.

Man, if Johnny doesn't have oxycodone, I'm gonna be pissed.

Jules walked down the street, passing by a few other residents as he went. No one noticed him, which was to be expected - mayor's son or not, the only thing about him that stood out was his copper-colored hair.

Truth be told, he didn't quite know where he was going. He'd just picked a direction and started walking. Jules sighed, bringing a hand to his eyes to shield them from the sun. Maybe he'd run into someone he knew...

"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."

"Great lightning! The crocodile just grew as big as the island!"

"We are going to need something to contain that! Samurai?"

"Swift as the wind, Kaze no Yō ni Hayaku!"

---

Yet again, Kaito Tanaka woke up before he could see the man in green do anything after saying the phrase. Dreams like that had been plaguing his mind for at least a week. All of them included several characters that alternated their appearances, but the one that remained in all of them was dressed in a green vest with golden parts. He always only muttered some phrases in Japanese before disappearing, and he once heard someone referring him as "Toshio", but the exact details of him were unknown. Samurai had become a small fixation for the history teacher. He did not look like the actual samurais of Ancient Japan, but some of his actions indicated otherwise. Maybe it was nothing, Kaito thought.

He got dressed and cleaned up, and looked though the mail while he ate his breakfast.

Most of it was just bills and the occasional spam mail. But then he noticed a note near the bedroom door. He picked it up.

"What midnight tells me? Tomorrow night?"

Kaito did believe in the Kami, the Japanese spirits that could inhabit or be any object there was. Vague memories of listening to his grandparents' stories flashed through his mind.

"Sure, why not. Maybe it can tell me something about the mysterious Samurai and whoever his friends are."

But that was tomorrow. Now it was time to finish reading The Art Of War.

Edited by JTTWlover on Apr 5th 2020 at 8:27:31 PM

If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison

Streets

Haruto had gone on ahead. Mob didn't mind. Lots of people tended to just move on after a few minutes with him, and it extending to his brother didn't bother him all too much. He was a mob, after all. It was how he got his name. So dull and forgettable, he was surprised he was even called on in class half the time.

It was nice though, to walk alone. Even for a little while. He could think about frogs. And dogs. And other things that ended in -og(s). A tiny smile appeared on his face for a moment as his pace became a little more lighthearted. Only a little. He couldn't be too happy.

He wondered why for a moment. He couldn't think of any reason. But it felt wrong. Like if he did, something terrible would happen.

Again, what it was he couldn't even slightly fathom.

“Oh. Morning.”

He'd fallen into step beside someone absentmindedly. Red hair. He looked familiar for some reason. Did he know him? Was it even right to say ‘good morning’? Mob wasn't sure, so he decided it was best to ask instead of letting an awkward silence form.

“Have we met before?”

He didn't add his name to that, since he wasn't sure if he'd be introducing himself again for no reason. Plus, he didn't know whether to introduce himself as ‘Mob’ or ‘Shi– Ichirō’. Names could be difficult, especially nicknames.

None of this thought process made it onto his face—Mob's expression was consistently one blank and lifeless as he stared off into space. Unreadable, like the background character he knew he was. People said so. That had to make it right.

bork

After throwing away the random envelope, Yui had to choose an outfit to wear. Usually, she didn't have trouble picking, but she couldn't help but utter a shocked, "what the hell?!" when Jeeves placed a sailor outfit in front of her.

"When did I get this?!" she asked, holding it up in surprise. It was so small, it'd probably show off her midriff if she bothered wearing it. She did like the all-black look, but not when everyone could gawk at her when she did.

"I am unsure, Miss Yui," Jeeves replied, eyeing the outfit with some confusion, "I do not remember seeing you wear it. Shall I dispose of it?"

"No, wait," Yui said, pulling it closer, "I... might need it later." She had no idea where that came from, but the idea of throwing it out felt like a mistake. Even though, as she ran her fingers over the shoulder, something felt missing.

---

The Park

Everything seemed off that morning, and she was more pissed off than usual. She had work later that day, but that morning, she just needed to get out of the house.

There was a spot in the park she usually liked to frequent when being around other people didn't suit her mood. It was secluded enough that she could usually go undisturbed.

Unfortunately, in such a small town, it was hard to go unnoticed entirely, especially with her unique dye-job. So, when she made it to her special spot, there were already at least five other teens there.

She recognized them easily, some of the punks she'd beaten up before the school year had ended. They were standing tall, carrying various weapons like chains and bats.

With a groan, she said, "whatever vengeance you want, can't it wait till next week? I'm not in the mood to kick your asses again." She wasn't kidding, getting into a fight after the dream she had felt like a waste of time.

"Scared, Ito?" the leader said, smacking a wrench against the palm of his hand, "you should be. After making us look bad, we figured it was about time to show you why you shouldn't mess with us."

"I wasn't impressed the last time you jumped me," she snarked back. Though, last time they weren't so heavily armed, Yui wasn't really looking forward to this.

"Enough talking!" the jumpiest looking yelled, he swung his chain over his head a few times as he ran at her. She barely moved, except to swing her backpack around to catch it.

"I said, I'm not in the mood, dumbasses!" Yui yelled back as she pivoted and used the guy's momentum to send him flying through the treeline. He let out a very loud, undignified screech as he landed near the picnic tables that were nearby. Just what she needed this morning.

I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."

Jules stumbled a little at the voice, then turned his head. A boy around his age - pale skin, black hair, likely Japanese - was walking beside him. "M-morning," he said, wringing his hands. "And, um...maybe? I'm shy, so I don't talk to people often..."

He brushed a stray lock of hair behind his ear, then looked forward. "Where are you going?" he asked. He didn't entirely want to look at the boy. The lifeless expression on his face was uncanny at best. Almost as though he were some sort of living corpse.

It's just a teenager. Calm down. Jules blinked. Was...was that the voice? "Did you hear that?"

"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."

Streets

“Oh. That's okay. I'm like that too,” Mob nodded, looking at Jules a moment before his gaze fell blankly ahead again. His eyes almost looked black from a distance, but from this range they were more of a reddish-brown. No light reflected in them. Or at least not in a way that suggested much life.

“I'm Sh– Ichirō. Ichirō Mochizuki,” he said after a moment, stumbling a little over his own instincts. He wondered if it was a developing tic or something. Maybe he should get it checked out. “Most people call me Mob though. I don't mind. It makes sense.”

Jules asked him something, and Mob stared at him blankly. It took him a moment to register his words before he tilted his head a fraction to one side—stopping for a moment in a manner unidentifiable as either inquisitive or concerned.

“I didn't hear anything. At least I don't think I did. Why's that? I heard some people hear things they're not supposed to. Maybe that's it? Like when you listen to happy music and you think your mom's calling–”

He cut himself off rather abruptly, and pursed his lips. He was talking too much. He shouldn't have done that. A mild look of shame flickered across his face as his gaze lowered downwards, and he continued on in his walk with a more significant shuffle than before.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, ashamed. “Do you know what I mean though?”

bork

Park

Ivan was going on the streets of Sunmerside. Considering how small the town was, that means the less people he had to deal with...but also the less people to witness his awesomeness.

Now that I thought about it, I'm not sure if living here was the best of ideas. There doesn't seem much need of a theoretical physicist here. I mean, I guess I could get work as a science teacher, but that would be far too low for me. If things go wrong, I can just sell my secret gold stash at Massachusetts. An- oh wait, is that a fight?

Ivan lost in his mind didn't seem to notice he found himself near the town's park...and some girl looking like she's fighting with stupid looking kids.

That girl over there seems like a fighter. Maybe she wins, but I'm not sure a 1v5 is even possible to win against. If nothing else, at least I can call the police if it does go wrong. Hopefully they don't take a year before arriving though, or they might be looking at a dead body and blaming it on me.

Ivan was looking from a distance away from ensuing fight, but also holding his cellphone in case she didn't exactly was going to beat them all up at once.

Edited by Darkomega245 on Apr 5th 2020 at 1:26:22 AM

"Oh, um..." Jules shifted. "N-never mind. And...yeah, sort of. I'm Jules, by the-"

He was cut off by a loud crash and a scream of pain. Jules's head snapped up. "Wh-what was that?!"

The park, he realized, and in a second, he took off, running toward the park as fast as he could. "Sorry, Ichirō," he whispered. "But I think this is more important."

It didn't take long to reach the park - his body was lean, so he could run pretty fast. His stamina was far less impressive, and by the time he'd gotten there, he was gasping for air. "What happened?!" he gasped out between breaths - and then he took the situation in.

Yui Ito. Surrounded by kids carrying weapons. All of them looked unfriendly.

And now some of them had noticed him.

"Oh no," he whispered.

"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."

Park

“Don't wait up if it's something bad,” Mob began, but Jules was already ahead. Rather reluctantly, he began to run. Or lollop, as was more accurate a term. Mob wasn't a very good runner. His limbs were noodles, and he still had prominent baby fat. An urge to shout the words ‘fight on!’ manifested in him, but he ignored it. He didn't know where it had come from, but it wasn't very appropriate for the situation at hand.

Mob wasn't flat out wheezing by the time he caught up with Jules at the park, but his breath was staggered a little, and his face was clearly flushed from exertion.

“Are you fighting? You shouldn't do that,” he said upon assessing the situation, noticing Jules anxiety and moving forward a fraction to put the attention on him a little more. “Somebody could get hurt. So stop.”

bork

Park

One guy barely out of the fight, but probably getting ready to jump back in, and four still ready to go. Not the best position to be in, but Yui was used to this kind of stuff.

As a guy with a pair of brass knuckles (weren't those illegal? Dumb question, no one in this group cared) started punching, Yui ducked away from every blow without even trying. Every attack was so telegraphed that she was still able to watch as Mr. Leader started swinging with his pipe wrench.

She'd almost forgotten about the other two, but a glance off to the side explained why they hadn't joined in yet. She was used to fighting street toughs, not to defend other people, though.

"Dammit, kids," she snarled as she jumped back to get some room. The other punks weren't attacking immediately, but if the others didn't leave, she knew things would get dangerous for them.

There wasn't time anymore to play, so she grabbed her backpack and threw it on the ground. It exploded, everything she had flying through the air. The one thing that mattered was the baseball bat that she caught as it popped out.

For a second, she held it as if it were a sword or something, in one hand, pointed towards the fight. She quickly recovered, holding it in both and swinging to catch the next hit from the leader with the wrench, and kicking the guy with brass knuckles who was preparing to get closer. He staggered away after the kick to his family jewels.

I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."

Jules watched the battle unfold, eyes wide and mouth agape. He'd barely noticed that the leader had turned to him until the older boy barked, "What're you lookin' at?!"

"N-nothing!" Jules hastily said. "I-I just heard someone scream and wanted to help..."

"Sure you aren't with her?" the leader asked, pointing his wrench at Yui.

She's outnumbered, Jules realized with a jolt. Sure, Yui was pretty strong, but she was going against five people, all with weapons. It wasn't a fight she could win, that was for sure...

Fight.

The voice boomed in Jules's brain, the commanding tone causing him to gasp. Then, he sucked in a breath and looked the leader in the eye.

"No...but I'm not going to let you hurt her."

Edited by LilyTheLitten on Apr 5th 2020 at 2:27:24 AM

"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."

The same dream of yesterday had repeated itself that night. The same people having to deal with the same stuff, and the same words. Today, however, there were some seconds more after the phrase. A breeze was noticed around Samurai's body. It grew bigger the more time it spent there, but when it engulfed his legs, Kaito woke up.

That was still more information that was given to him.

Samurai seemed to have some power over the wind.

The wind. Part of the storm, and the bearer of spring.

One of the five elements.

But that was enough. It was time to get to the park.

When he got there it seemed to be a fight going on. A girl with a baseball bat fighting five punks. A kid just said he wouldn't let them hurt her. An explosion seemed to have taken place there. He didn't know what overcame his mind and yelled an old-fashioned exclamation, but it was there.

"What in the blue blazes did just happen here?!"

If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison

Emiru Residence

"...I'm sorry. I know you trusted me, and I broke my promise keeping that from you."

His expression isn't exactly surprised at my admission, but accepting. A good sign, perhaps.

I continue: "But I don't want us to keep fighting any more."

Pausing for a brief moment to meet the boy's gaze, I give a wan smile, holding out my pinky finger apologetically. I can only hope he'd take it. "So...can we try this again?"

He doesn't usually let his emotions show like this, no. If this was a normal day, he might make a crack at me for my mistake too, but now I notice he's starting to seem a little too choked up for that.

"Okay...", is his quiet response.

It all begins to fade with the feeling of that light touch against mine.

---

Yuu opens his eyes. The first thing that comes to his mind is a name.

Anya. Anya Kudou.

For whatever reason, it seemed so familiar. So dearly close to him—yet he couldn't quite figure out the wisps of a connection between the blurry silhouette from his dream, and the two precious words lingering on his tongue. Whose voice it was directed towards him; whose bittersweet glances those belonged to; it was painfully wavering just out of reach, and what was left of detail quickly disappearing from his memory, anyway. Almost as if...forced.

But it wasn't his own name.

He knew that much.

Well, at least it had a nice ring to it. Yuu raises a hand to brush away the tears suddenly streaming down his cheeks.

Untangling himself from the curled sheets—as he'd have liked to do with the pressing clutches of that odd dream—he finally slips out of bed to get ready, when a voice rings out from another room. His mother, of course. Natsuko Emiru. Not the one he was born to, but Yuu himself didn't care. Besides, the whole family subject was another matter entirely.

"Yuuhi!", comes the call. "Did you leave a note outside?"

Outside...? He feels a growing curiosity compelling him to speed through his usual routine; arriving where this "note" awaited sooner than he thought. She hands him the neatly folded sheet. How strange.

Opening it revealed some sort of summons to the local park, lettered clearly, though with handwriting unrecognisable to him.

Well, it wasn't like he had much else to do. After finishing the morning livestream on his channel and calling a quick goodbye to his mother over his shoulder, he heads out onto the streets to investigate.

The Park

Sure, he was expecting to see something when he arrived. In fact, it would be wrong not to.

But of all situations that could've possibly greeted him, it was this?

A dark-haired schoolgirl in seifuku...shit-kicking no less than five random street gangsters in broad daylight, obviously armed to the point of obnoxiousness. With a baseball bat. Somehow. And an old geezer yelling over the din of the escalating commotion; there appeared to be a bit of a crowd gathered around already.

Yuu breaks into a half-run towards the scene. "What's going—" he starts, confusion becoming more and more apparent as he begins to near them.

A light frown comes to his features at seeing one of the bystanders abruptly jump in to fight, but doesn't make a move to stop him, reluctantly opting to observe what would unfold instead.

Well, that’d be jus’ a waste. Why would ya want to deprive the world of such anomaly as yourself?

Park

“You shouldn't get hurt, Jules...” Mob murmured, though he recognized that he was already in too deep. He tentatively looked between the thugs and the others congregating nearby, then towards Yui.

His dull gaze lingered on her a moment, before giving way and turning back to the thugs again. His jaw was set, his gaze more firm.

Still unreadable, though. For the most part, at least.

“You shouldn't be fighting,” he reiterated, sounding more decided than before as he took a solid step forward. “You shouldn't... point knives at other people. It'll get someone hurt, and...”

He wasn't sure where the knife comment had come from. It felt familiar, but he couldn't think of any reasoning to back it with. Eventually he simply lowered his brow towards the ground, slowly raising his eyes up to meet the group of thugs again.

With his expressionless demeanour and decidedly more unforgiving stare, he suddenly seemed to be a lot more intimidating than one would expect from him.

“Leave her alone. Or you'll have to get hurt.”

「 58% 」

Edited by Enirboreh on Apr 6th 2020 at 12:08:36 PM

bork

The Park

Yui was starting to get a little pissed off. There seemed to be more people showing up by the second. Not smart people like four-eyes who just watched from a distance, people who were seconds away from jumping right in.

She was a bit busy dealing with the guys who were right on top of her, the pipe wrench and brass knuckles guys. Apparently, the guy with brass knuckles was used to getting kicked there, since he was still able to fight. He had tears streaking down his face and was a little unsteady on his feet, but he was still moving.

A glance towards the kids (ok, they were probably about her age, but they looked like toddlers in that moment) wasn't good. Street punks were like wild animals, direct threats just led to more aggression in the hopes of scaring people off.

The sight of two thugs waving their weapons around at a couple of kids was enough of a distraction for brass knuckles to connect with her jaw. Well, that hurt.

Yui staggered back a bit, surprised at the first real hit she had to take since... she couldn't remember, but she's pretty sure she's felt some real pain before.

Whatever, not important. What was important was a further annoyance, the chain was back. Just as she raised her bat above her head, the chain came flying out and wrapped around it.

"Ha, now what are you gonna do, tough girl?!" the thug sneered as three of them started getting closer. The chain tugging on her bat was getting tighter and tighter.

"I just came here to think," she muttered under her breath, getting louder and angrier by the word, "and this, is MY SECRET SPOT!" With that, she gripped the bat with two hands on opposite sides of the chain and used all of her strength, pulling the guy up and over her head, right into his friends.

The three were in a pile in front of her, and she placed one foot on their backs. Pointing her bat at the other two, she snarled, "had enough?! Or do you wanna end up like your friends?!"

I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."

Park

Marina had a sixth sense for trouble, an uncanny ability to seek out injustices so that they could be brought to light (violently, with fists), which is how she ended up at the sight of the battle, one valiant young woman standing against five of her ilk.

(That the park was en route to the high school also helped.)

She recognised most of the kids from school, Yui standing out the most and the rest ranging from a first-name basis to a hazy facial recollection. And of course she knew Mr. Tanaka, her fellow teacher, though the other adult didn't spark any memory. Boy did she have some words for them about standing by gormlessly while a kid was getting ganged up on, but if she talked now then she'd be announcing her arrival, and that meant losing the element of surprise that was required for an awesome entrance.

So, rather than speak, Marina dashed right into the heart of matters, digging her foot into the ground at the last second so that she skidded coolly to a stop where Yui stood atop a pile of her attackers. She scooped up the wrench that had been lost in the tussle, using it to point to each of the fighters in turn- including Yui herself.

"Oy, you brats!" Marina yelled, so everyone in attendance could hear. "Getting into brawls without inviting your good ol' teach! SHAME ON YOU!" Her other hand gripped the wrench and, with a steady flex of her muscles, bent the steel down the middle until the top rested at 45 degrees from the handle. She then hurled the now-useless tool aside, her single yellow eye glittering with violent glee. "C'MON, on your feet! Fight me 6-on-1 or get the HELL outta here!!"

they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGob

OOC: I'm confused at what Marina is doing, Whiz. I'm not too sure if she's also threatening Kaito or she's facing the kids plus the surviving punks. Also some of the kids are trying to protect Yui. Edit: This has been solved.

Alright. This was going really off what whatever what had to happen. Kaito had started to recognize some people and was genuinely scared of whatever the students and fellow teacher Miss Marina were doing. Ichirō had gotten a whole lot more intimidating, Yui had taken out three punks out, Jules was still standing there and Marina had made a dramatic entrance and threatened the punks.

But he couldn't run away. The code of honor and the reminder of the note prevented him from doing that. He had to stay, even if a fellow teacher seemed that she would totally kill everyone there.

"Shit."

Dark, I realize you're late, but it's been a while since Kaito yelled what in the blue blazes, and he did it after Jules entered the fight. Just a reminder.

Edited by JTTWlover on Apr 6th 2020 at 2:15:04 PM

If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison

Park

Wait...what the hell is even going on?

Suddenly out of nowhere, Ivan noticed how some kids came out of nowhere to...fight these guys? Were they suicidal? Did the kids of today were taught to throw their lives away in stupid situations for no reason?

Man, I am glad that if that is the case, I was not part of that generation. I feel like I would look like that weird kid with that horrible haircut. That would really SUCK.

Then, some guy was near him came screaming what is going on near him. Well, it's fairly obvious this is a fight.

Ah, why bother explaining to him? If he can't even tell that this is a fight, that guy will just get a brain fart if I attempt to explain the basics.

He then saw a rather overdramatic lady screaming at the punks in no uncertain terms to get the fuck out.

I'm not sure why I even bother. Now this turned into a scene out of a movie where people defeat the bullies through the power of friendship. Not sure how that happened, but as long as they beat them up, I don't have to waste mobile data.

He kept staring at ensuing chaos, only giving some looks at the people gathering around, and noticing some kid nearby not performing a suicidal charge.

I guess some of the kids here aren't kamikazes. Maybe the richer schools value the richer kids life's more than poorer schools. I really want my Oxycodone, anyways.

Edited by Darkomega245 on Apr 6th 2020 at 5:28:08 AM

Everything had happened fast. Too fast. Only seconds after Jules's attempted defense had just about a hundred people showed up at once, and three of the punk were downed. The word "Run" kept echoing in his mind.

"Scatter!" yelled one of them, and the two broke apart, scrambling in different directions. Jules snapped out of his stupor and yelled, "Wait!"

The closer one - one with a bat - skidded to a halt and stormed towards him, fury blazing in his eyes. "What?! You want a fight too?! Oh, I'll give you a fight!"

All the color drained from Jules's face. "N-no! I just-!"

The punk brought down his bat with a shriek, Jules screamed and held his hands up-

And he caught it.

His fingers wrapped around the bat as it came down, stopping it in place. The kid's eyes widened, and his mouth moved, but he didn't hear him over his own pounding heartbeat.

From there, he tore the bat from the kid's hands and stepped back, throwing the kid off-balance for a second. For a moment, he stood there, holding the bat-

And then Jules came to.

"What the hell?!" the punk shouted. "What was that?!"

"I-I don't know!" Jules said desperately. "It was like I was someone else!" Like the dreams, he realized. "I-I don't want to make trouble! I-I'll go now!"

He dropped the bat, turned around, and ran out of the park. Coward, the voice said, but he wasn't listening.

"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."