[dream]

[notvitiligo]

[warning for light torture elements]

Comments

[no_hometown]

[Appearing suddenly in the maze, a silver-haired child watches Jessica with wide green eyes.] Hello. [She is sympathetic. Sometimes tests don't seem to make any sense, and she often dislikes them.]

Perhaps this experiment is to determine how well you can withstand pain. Your professor will be pleased if you remain still and calm.

[notvitiligo]

[She looks up, staring for a moment, then lets out a low laugh, tears running down her cheeks.] This is just cruel...

I don't know why I want to please this professor. It's not going to stop this. [She still doesn't move, in spite of this.]

You know, if you put a dog in a cage with an electrified floor, it'll stop moving, and it won't even leave if you open the door later.

[no_hometown]

The professor always stops in the end. [She pauses, feeling the need to be fully truthful.] It might take a while. It depends on your performance.

You are not a dog. You can reason. You will know. [She comes forward, curious, her hand brushing Jessica's arms experimentally.] I do not see what is causing your distress.

[notvitiligo]

And then starts up again. Less of a stop, more of a break.

Nobody does. Do you want to?

[mellifluently]

[Oh, this is terrible. Mahalia rushes to Jessica's side, wrapping her arms around her, regardless of whether this means she'll experience the same shocks.]

[notvitiligo]

[She struggles.] Are you crazy?! Flesh is a conductor!

[mellifluently]

[Her grip loosens, alarmed by Jessica's struggles, but she shakes her head.]

That doesn't matter.

[notvitiligo]

There's no sense in both of us getting it.

What are you doing here, anyway?

[mnementomori]

[she pounds on the glass, stuck on the other side of a maze wall. What's happening to her friend?]

Jessica, Jessica!

[her voice is muffled, but audible enough.]

[notvitiligo]

[Wait what? She looks up, confused.]

...Xion?

[mnementomori]

Y-yeah, it's me--th...they're hurting you!

[she steps back and summons her Keyblade, swinging it as hard as she can, hoping to make a dent in the wall.]

[notvitiligo]

[She watches impassively- still occasionally jerking involuntarily. A chip flies off the wall, clattering on the floor. Jessica scoots back in surprise.]

[welljustwatchme]

[This isn't her dream, isn't anything she's really familiar with at all, but Canada doesn't take time to worry about that. Adjustment time is not a necessity when someone needs you.]

Jessica! [At the same time she's running over to her, she's falling to her knees, sliding to a stop on the hard floor in front of her fellow wall-flower.] How do we get you out of this?

[notvitiligo]

[She looks up, puzzled.] Canada?

I don't think we do. Barring an early death...

[welljustwatchme]

There's always something... [Although her mind does flint to ways to put Jessica out of her misery while they're trapped here. It's just a dream, after all. Surely the Gardens wouldn't be so cruel as to make it lethal.

Although she can never trust them completely.]

Aside from the shocks, are you hurt?

[notvitiligo]

I don't think so. It'd be kind of counterproductive to injure me. I'm supposed to keep going.