(Untitled)
[Tonight was promising to be a quiet night in the dressing room. The Tykis may be lounging in the miscellaneous bars and pubs, and the Allens are probably curled up in piles of blankets. Who knows where the Crosses are, but that's nothing new. And Lavis? Well... they're probably head-first in a book, drooling and getting ink on themselves. Yes,
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Actually, there was one bit of color in the hallway. The footsteps made by your passing. Flower petals of bright pinks and purples stretching endlessly behind.]
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[And yet, there's something about the feeling of the lack of color that Road doesn't like. It feels strange, even for a dreamworld. There isn't any place to go, but forward.]
[Her brow furrows, and she clasps her hands behind her back as she steps forward, color rippling from her toes with each step she takes.]
[Color. It's the least she can do right now.]
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She finds herself outside in the middle of tall grasses. Perhaps her search will produce more fruit here. If she looks back, she can see the sole building that makes up this way point for worlds. However, it looks even bleaker than the gray stalks at her feet. A soft wind kicks up and the colored petals of lotus she was trailing and swirls into the sky. Even though she can't see any water, she can smell the salt coming from an ocean beach.]
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[Road reaches out, running her fingers over the grass, contemplating which direction to go. She doesn't want to go back to the building; if she does, she'll never get out again, and she knows it. At the same time, though... she's missing something. Someone. She can't just leave with out them.]
[But there's ocean ahead. Freedom. Not weird versions of her, nor the ones she loves, nor those claiming to be her Siblings who aren't. She frowns, looking down at the ground, where a small yellow flower is coming up from the soil; she plucks it free, and starts forward ( ... )
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As she makes her way toward the ocean, her footsteps will no longer produce petals, but dents in the long grasses. When she looks back from time to time, she'll see a second, larger set of imprinted footprints in the grass a step or two behind.
But there is nothing there to occupancy her except for the sea breeze and tall blades.]
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[It takes her a moment to realize that there are footsteps beside her, and she stops, whirling in her spot.]
Tyki? [Except, Tyki wouldn't do this to her. He'd come out, wouldn't he? Her gaze narrows, and she folds her arms.] Allen?
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A form appears before her out of smoke, but it echoes the same dull grays as the world around her. Neah. Allen Walker with Tyki's face. It is as close as the Dream can get to matching her request.
The figure bows at her and offers a hand.]
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Brother.
[The voice is clipped, seething. Her first reaction is to summon a candle, and plunge it through that pretty face of his.]
[And yet...]
[While the candles do appear behind her, floating in a small flock, she doesn't reach for one. Somehow, she can't bring herself to do it. Instead, her gaze hardens.]
You don't belong here.
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The Dream itself only seems to be mirroring her actions. Her anger becomes its anger. Her defiance echoed.
The wind whips up again and the lights on her candles flicker violently but don't go out. The footsteps left in the grass erased. She can hear a crashing wave on the shore where she was recently headed.
Neah still remains where he is standing, seeming to not mind the threat coming his way. Though, his shadow seems to stretch toward her despite the gray world.]
But you called, dear sister.
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Not for you.
[Road hasn't quite caught on to the way her emotions are shaping the Dream. Not when she's so frustrated that she can hardly see straight, anyway. And not when the mere sight of him makes her neck sting and throb and burn worse than ever.]
Leave.
[Because she wants to go toward the sound of crashing waves... and like hell if she's going to turn her back to him to do it.]
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When she shouts at him and tells him to begone, his form shakes as if it can't keep hold. It blurs, both body and shadow, into a formless mass until it can finally resettle. It takes the form of the being beyond the mirror. The black shadow with wide eyes and grin but no other distinguishable features. Certainly not Allen. And certainly not Tyki.]
Y... got.... e
[It garbles out something unintelligible, but stands firm its ground. Still an echo of her anger that the Dream tries to keep alive despite Road's demand otherwise.]
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[The thing beyond the mirror. The Noah. There's something about seeing that grinning face that seems to cause a shift in her anger to something that's more than just lonely frustration, but also a seething ache. An internal reaction Dreams is having to its missing kin that she doesn't quite understand.]
[It only hurts worse that she can't tell what it's trying to say. Hurt?]
[The grass plunges into the earth, leaving nothing but very fine and very unnaturally white sand at her feet. She reaches up for one of her candles and holds it toward him, as though a warning to not come closer.]
You'll have to speak louder than that. [And with the candle in hand, she starts stepping toward the sound of waves. Maybe she'll find Allen there. Or Tyki. Maybe both. That would make everything all better.]
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The shadow of the 14th stops at the grassy edge seeming one long blade himself. He doesn't follow forward. Nor does he utter any more words. He remains quiet and still almost like a forgotten memory and her shift from rage.
As she crosses the sand, something pushes up against her foot. It is an old, thick glass bottle with a piece of paper inside it. Though the glass is old and faded, she can see that the piece of paper is blank and that there is ... a pen in the bottle as well.]
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[The bottle in the sand is distraction enough, however. She casts one last look at the shadow before bending down to pick it up.]
[It's a lot like a fairy tale, the story of a message in a bottle. She turns the bottle over in her hand, letting the paper and the pen slip into her hand, and writes her name, as well as Tyki's and Allen's on the scrap.]
[Should she throw it back into the water, she wonders.]
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While the sun was overhead only moments before, it was setting now. Only the top half of the huge sphere could be seen over the water. Its bright white rays reflected off the gray tinted water. If she bothered to take a closer look at her message written, she would have notice that Tyki's name had disappeared and Allen's had been smudged beyond recognition. For dead man could tell no tales, and that particular Allen she had in mind wasn't here, in her Dream World, at last, not at the moment.]
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[But Tyki's name is gone, and with it, it brings an overwhelming emptiness.]
[Without giving it much of a second thought, she whirls around and glares at the shadow lingering on the edge of the sand.]
Where is he?
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