A Nightmare on Luceti Street 2: The Reapening

[poppetry]

Who: poppetry, and her numerous victims: shadedsunlight, consultmybooks, perplex_me, cakeblocked, ofthediaphragm, magiconcehad, vanityunbcoming, and last but not least, a surprise appearance from skulljokelol.
What: Xion finds this mask in her room. How mysterious. But things start to go wrong after she's compelled to put it on.....
When: Afternoon through early night of the 23rd.
Where: Starting at KH house, then ranging all over the village.
Summary:

Comments

[skulljokelol]

[It's late when Brook steps out of the house for some fresh air, humming a tune as he wanders the village. He's not even a little bit tired; indeed, all the strangeness going about has just stirred him up. He needs to move, needs to sing; he's wound up and feels about ready to burst with it.

Perhaps a stroll is what he needs to settle his bones.]

And what of you, Moon-san? [On his way back to the house, Brook stops his humming and sits by the bridge.] Are you as restless as I am?

[poppetry]

[ It is late, now. Late, and the furious moon beats down on her back as if in judgment. Its hateful face seems to condemn her for her sins. And she cannot stand to look at it.

She stalks, now, her movements far less fluid than they have been the rest of this horrible evening. Restless anger, hopeless terror, waves of panic beat against the back of her mind, but the mask is not done yet.

Brook's voice reaches her before the sight of him does. It's too much. Too many of her own friends have fallen, whatever that really means, to her touch today. It seems like Brook will be the next.

It is with a painful splinter of awareness lodged behind her eyes that Xion advances on him, her head bowed, her eyes still aglow. ]

Brook.

[skulljokelol]

[Flat as it is, Brook recognizes her voice - being a musician, he has an ear for tone and pitch, you see, even if he hasn't any ears - before he turns to see her.]

Oh, Xion-san! What are you doing out so la-AAGH!

[Yup. Now he sees here. A face like that gives him a shock, considering it was the last thing he was expecting with the picture of the sweet girl he attaches to her name in mind. He stumbles backwards on his bottom, or rather the lack of it.]

Xion-san, you shouldn't frighten people like that!

[poppetry]

[ Ah. Well with him sitting like that, she can reach his face easily. How convenient. ]

I'm just wandering.

[ She sounds very tired. But there is a flatness to her voice, still, an eerie lack of humanity that speaks of darkness and ill tidings. ]

Can I ask you something?

[skulljokelol]

O-Of course.

[He wishes she would take that off, though. It doesn't look right at all, and at this angle he can see her eyes... glowing eyes.]

...are you all right?

[poppetry]

[ It's not so easy to grab someone's face when they have no skin. But she does it anyway, placing her palms over his cheekbones. ]

Will you hate me for this?

[ And though he has no skin, Brook will start to feel a sudden sensation of cold in his bones... ]

1/3

[skulljokelol]

No...

[Brook knows this feeling.]

[skulljokelol]

[He knows it the second his limbs go heavy and his body tilting to slump against the rails of the bridge, his jaw slack around a word that sounds oddly calm and at peace now.]

No.

[...but he won't be the only one feeling a deep chill spreading throughout them. Because you see, Miss Reaper, this is no ordinary soul you've tried to claim tonight.

Those two years spent away from his nakama... Brook did not waste them idly. After so much time, he thinks he finally understands the true power of the Yomi Yomi no Mi. Once a man dies, they're supposed to go on to the afterlife. But there's an almost endless amount of energy about his own soul that allows him to stay here.

His soul burns brighter than any other. Lost souls should go without notice, but people can hear him.]

[skulljokelol]

[When he leaves his body, people can see him: a greenish-yellow aura that seeps out of his bones. The more of him that Xion pulls out, the colder the air around them becomes.

And when he opens his mouth to speak, it's not the jaw of the skeleton that moves.]

No. Because there will be nothing to hate you for, not that I think I could ever bring myself to.

[He's resisting now, trying to draw his soul back into his body. Xion may begin to feel something like static crackling in her fingertips.]

[poppetry]

[ Xion's eyes go very wide behind her mask.

For the very first time, it feels like the piece of plastic that it is. It's still got its hold over her, but she feels like-- maybe-- just maybe-- If there was even the smallest chance, she'd give anything, no matter how much it hurt--

Cold. Suddenly she feels so cold.

She can't pull her hands away. She can't stop this. Her breath stutters in her chest as she struggles and fights back and she can't, she can't win, she's straining so hard she feels like she might choke-- ]

Please. [ A whisper is all she can manage. ] Help me.

[skulljokelol]

[That whisper is the extra push he needed. The charge in her fingers will continue to build, even as the cold recedes.

He knew she wouldn't do this. Something must be making her do it... that mask?]

It will be all right, Xion-san! [He'll find a way to fix this, though. He just needs to get back into his body, and then he can remove that mask.] I promise--

[That build-up of static increases ten-fold then - the force of his soul energy meeting that of whatever powers the mask. There's no fire, or rubble, but it feels like an explosion all the same.]