Retrace 5 || [Broadcast Dream - Video]
[[WARNINGS FOR PEOPLE WITH AN EYE SQUICK. INCLUDING MYSELF D:]]
You know this isn't real.
The sun is shining, and the grass is greener than grass should be. Birds chirp overhead. Patterns of sunlight shift on the grass, filtered by the foliage on the trees. You are happy, but there is a vague, nagging fear in the back of your mind, because you know this can't last.
Your hair is long. It glows almost incandescent in the sunlight, tied in a knot that falls in front of your shoulder, down nearly to your chest. You see with both eyes and you can breathe without an incredible weight pressing on your chest.
The children - your children? Yes, your children, they belong to you - run in the back garden. White hair, blond hair, pink hair. Your children. They are laughing, chasing each other but without an apparent goal. One calls for you: "Papa! C'mere, sillyhead! Play with us!"
- Familiar. Yachiru? You can't see her face, just the pink hair. -
But you can't play. Your wife is running across the yard toward you. Her head is down, her face obscured, but her hair is almost as long as she is, it seems, streaming behind her and glowing gold in this bright, unreal air.
"You must hurry! They're coming!" - Sharon's voice. Rapunzel's voice. No, Sharon's. Who is she? -
But it no longer matters who these people are, because they are about to be stolen from you. You jump up from your seat on the grass, take her hand, and run.
Out in front of the house is the police carriage. They are going to put you inside the dark inside with the barred door and you will never see your family again. The thought of that lightless cage sends a surge of terror through you. You thought you could sneak away through the woods, but they were faster than you thought. Your hand is no longer in your wife's and you look frantically around for her, but she has disappeared.
Two deputies approach you. One has long red hair and the face of a foreigner - Rufus Barma. Of course Barma would do this to you when you were no longer useful to him. - and the other is even more peculiar. Cat ears stick out from a mess of black on his head, but his eyes are blindfolded.
Barma moves swiftly and seizes your arm. "The Eyes of Misfortune, I have come in the name of the Four Dukedoms. You are under arrest for unspeakable crimes against humanity."
You twist and pull, but he has you so tightly you cannot escape. The fear pounds in your ears with your heart.
"What are my crimes?" you demand, as if you don't know. As if you don't understand perfectly.
Barma chuckles, forcing your arms behind your back, turning you to face the blindfolded deputy. "It's simple. You do not exist."
The blindfolded deputy lashes out, but instead of hands, he has long, oversized black paws, ending in sharp claws. You do not turn in time. Half your sight is stolen, leaving nothing but a throbbing black void as you feel the POP of the eyeball leaving its socket. The cat-like deputy cackles. And then a strangled scream rips from your throat, blotting out everything, including the sun-
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[The feed glitches. Static for a second. Then the camera refocuses on a wall, the edge of a mattress, and a swoop of white hair that covers Break's left eye. There is heavy, almost panicked breathing, gradually slowing. Fingers rake through the hair, and for a moment that side of his face is visible. His hand shakes slightly as he covers his eye, although the fingers obscure whatever might be underneath.]
You know this isn't real.
The sun is shining, and the grass is greener than grass should be. Birds chirp overhead. Patterns of sunlight shift on the grass, filtered by the foliage on the trees. You are happy, but there is a vague, nagging fear in the back of your mind, because you know this can't last.
Your hair is long. It glows almost incandescent in the sunlight, tied in a knot that falls in front of your shoulder, down nearly to your chest. You see with both eyes and you can breathe without an incredible weight pressing on your chest.
The children - your children? Yes, your children, they belong to you - run in the back garden. White hair, blond hair, pink hair. Your children. They are laughing, chasing each other but without an apparent goal. One calls for you: "Papa! C'mere, sillyhead! Play with us!"
- Familiar. Yachiru? You can't see her face, just the pink hair. -
But you can't play. Your wife is running across the yard toward you. Her head is down, her face obscured, but her hair is almost as long as she is, it seems, streaming behind her and glowing gold in this bright, unreal air.
"You must hurry! They're coming!" - Sharon's voice. Rapunzel's voice. No, Sharon's. Who is she? -
But it no longer matters who these people are, because they are about to be stolen from you. You jump up from your seat on the grass, take her hand, and run.
Out in front of the house is the police carriage. They are going to put you inside the dark inside with the barred door and you will never see your family again. The thought of that lightless cage sends a surge of terror through you. You thought you could sneak away through the woods, but they were faster than you thought. Your hand is no longer in your wife's and you look frantically around for her, but she has disappeared.
Two deputies approach you. One has long red hair and the face of a foreigner - Rufus Barma. Of course Barma would do this to you when you were no longer useful to him. - and the other is even more peculiar. Cat ears stick out from a mess of black on his head, but his eyes are blindfolded.
Barma moves swiftly and seizes your arm. "The Eyes of Misfortune, I have come in the name of the Four Dukedoms. You are under arrest for unspeakable crimes against humanity."
You twist and pull, but he has you so tightly you cannot escape. The fear pounds in your ears with your heart.
"What are my crimes?" you demand, as if you don't know. As if you don't understand perfectly.
Barma chuckles, forcing your arms behind your back, turning you to face the blindfolded deputy. "It's simple. You do not exist."
The blindfolded deputy lashes out, but instead of hands, he has long, oversized black paws, ending in sharp claws. You do not turn in time. Half your sight is stolen, leaving nothing but a throbbing black void as you feel the POP of the eyeball leaving its socket. The cat-like deputy cackles. And then a strangled scream rips from your throat, blotting out everything, including the sun-
--------
[The feed glitches. Static for a second. Then the camera refocuses on a wall, the edge of a mattress, and a swoop of white hair that covers Break's left eye. There is heavy, almost panicked breathing, gradually slowing. Fingers rake through the hair, and for a moment that side of his face is visible. His hand shakes slightly as he covers his eye, although the fingers obscure whatever might be underneath.]