thevoidsdarkhorse | Heart Game (Continued)

[BECAUSE HOMESTUCK ALPHA KID LIFE]

[ Well at least I have my minion and still a lot of blood to work with. And if he's protecting his minion, he can focus a lot better on the task at hand. Because it's about more than just him. It's about someone important to Roxy. And someone depending on him. So let's try more of the blood protection while grabbing minion for getaway flight. Maybe they can get back to the labs... ]

[At least there's....plenty of dead Carapacians around. :')]

[You have a BLOOD SHIELD to eat the rocket. ROBOT CONTINUES TO FOLLOW AS YOU RUN TO THE LAB. You know you are two thirds of the way there.]

[ Can we try to trip the robot with that shield and keep flying? ]

[Why yes you can.]

[Silly drone, this is why you fly.]

[Ten sider again.]

[ Well, that feels pretty damn good!

1 ]

[I'm sorry that feeling isn't going to last.]

[And that would be how it feels like to have every hope, dream, and everything you cherished violently ripped from you and crushed before your eyes.]

[You are now in a void.]

[ Yep, in a void and now emotionally compromised. Because he just. He has nothing for that. Absolutely nothing. But tears. Tears and a terrible sickness in his gut. ]

[He appears to be alone in the void.]

[So at least he has time to have every single feeling.]

[ THANKS FOR THAT! ]

[Sometimes we all need time to cry.]

[ He is probably having the most extreme emotional meltdown he's had in some since that really is TOO FUCKING MUCH for him to take. Thankfully, his new godtier status makes it a little bit easier to unconsciously call on his power, his bonds, for support and to try to force focus through all that bleakness and despair. Because he can't lose this fight. He can't. He promised! How is he supposed to find everyone in the end if he can't find his way out of this? He may be a fucking failure but he won't fail her! And that's the only thought that remains amid the crushing weight of agony and helplessness. But he grasps for it with everything he has.

[Blood, blood, blood, there was so much BLOOD, but blood is more than life, but how it binds people, ties them together. Sometimes those bindings can be choking, suffocating, dragging people down, like it's dragging HER down, because it's the people she remembers, the people she lived for.]

[In the end, you're an heir, and if your aspect needs to be changed, it is in your power to inspire that change when people need it. The blood she's focused on has dragged her down, has taken the life from her eyes, and left her in this wreck state.]

[But there's more than that blood in here, isn't there? Everyone keeps saying how they want to help, offer their own blood to prove it, and there is power there. There is kindness and caring and change. You can take that change, use that blood to get power, to give you focus, to make sure that those desires don't fall short.]

[You can use that blood to cause change.]

[You can use it to inspire her to free her from that sadness and see the bonds that could save her from despair.]

[You can change it, Heir of Blood, just step forward, and see with new eyes.]

[ Yes, he does focus on that feeling, the sincere belief that they can change this, that she can, she only needs to understand she can. And he lashes out with the feeling, trying to use his still nascent faith, sinking it deep into the other bindings that hold this place in such suffering. He can change it. ]

[You push, tug, PULL, and suddenly, you're out of the void.]

[You're on the street. You have your Nitori. And you're in front of a tall building, and you know it's the lab.]

[And you can see those strands, that blood, see where it's all tangled together, and she's right there in front of you.]

[It’s Roxy. Standing there in a t-shirt, skirt, and leggings, her mother’s scarf wrapped around her. In her hand is a piece of glass covered in blood, her own clothes stained the same. Around her are bodies. The bodies of her friends and Rose.]

[(The blood binds her to them, constricting her throat, her limbs, keeping her from moving forward, and it needs to change change change because the blood is clotting, killing her.)]

[She looks over her shoulder at you, and she’s smiling, but her eyes are empty. She turns to you, and perhaps you’ll realize the blood is HERS. She’s covered in jagged injuries, but nowhere vital. Those spots are covered in bands of Tiamat purple outlined in black.]

[(More blood, good blood, bright red, still pulsing. A duty, a responsibility she holds to others, reasons she needs to stay ALIVE, and a bond, inspired from a friend.)]

[She holds out the shard of glass.]

Kill me.

[(You can change it.)]

[ Well, at least the last horrific scene kind of prepared him for this one so even though he can fill the bile rising in his throat, he can somewhat stomach it and focus on what he has to do, his gaze going far too bright with determined desperation, as he tries to approach her. At the same time, he starts targeting those blood bindings that ensnare, trying to infuse them with his own promises, his own hopes for her, concentrating on breaking them down, on morphing them into something less vicious, a necklace, a bracelet, a lasting reminder that he will find a way to never really leave her. ]

Roxy... it doesn't have to be like this.

I'm done. All I wanted was them for sixteen years, and they're all gone now. [She keeps on smiling emptily, holding out the glass.] But I can't get through the bindings. I'm not even allowed that.

[The blood is resisting. It's strong, bad blood, but the color is flickering, away from the bad blood to something more bright, alive. There is TRACTION to be had, changes that can be made.]

They're not meant to be chains, Roxy. They're meant to be strength. It's what they left you with. I know it hurts. I felt it too. Every moment. So... I know why you want it to end. But... you've only really lost them if you forget that, if you use their feelings against yourself. You've made it this far because of those bonds, right?

[ He tries to approach so he can reach that glass. ]

[More flashes in the clotted blood.]

[And the Tiamat blood pulses, those bands spreading a bit more.]

[She doesn't keep him from pulling away the glass. After all, she was offering it.]

[Tears prick at the corner of her eyes.] I could only make it this far because of them. They're my everything Sakura, and they're gone. Even their corpses.

It hurts to exist knowing they're not in my future.

[ He is going to just hold onto that piece. ]

But aren't you still shaping your future? With all the crazy breaking of the laws of physics in your world, is everything really set in stone?

They're not gone, Roxy. They're still protecting you, even now.

[Tiamat pulses and the smile falters into a grimace.]

I'm the one who was supposed to protect them. That's my role, but I failed.

How am I supposed to believe I'll be any better at revivin' 'em when it'll be outside the rules?

Because you want it bad enough, don't you? Isn't that how your powers work? They tap into what you really need? If you want something bad enough, you find a way. You take it. You're a Rouge of the Void. Rules don't have to control you. Trust in your own strength and the faith they put in you.

[ He tosses the shard to the side and instead grabs her hand tightly. ]

You haven't failed them unless you give up hope now. And I won't allow that. Because I believe in you.

[It's like a jolt when he touches her hands, already cut open from the glass, from trying to hack away at the barriers, making the blood SING in response to him, and she starts crying.]

I can't-I can't believe I can do it! I-if I fail, if I fail, I-!

[ He's just going to keep going despite that, trying to pull her closer, aching to pass along his sincerity in his belief in her through the contact, through the touch. This is how he's always tried to reach people, not just through words but through real tangible action. Words are one thing. They hold their own power. But the true nature of his strength has always rested in the combination of his emotions and the bonds that fuel them. And now, all he can do is rely on that strength to reach out to Roxy. ]

It's okay to be afraid. And nobody's going to blame you for finding it difficult to believe. That's why you have the rest of us, everyone here, everyone in this heart, fighting with you. We know you can work miracles, Roxy. We've seen them here.

[There is...something else. A memory, a feeling.]

[It was always overwhelming to be touched by people, you long since figured out is because you're used to the hard shells of Carapacians. Save for one thing; when people held your hands. It was the most natural feeling of contact with another human, and you always woke from your dreams so much more easily when you were holding someone's hands in the night.]

[You learn about dream selves, how you apparently sleepwalk, and Dirk drags you back, and it makes sense. Even if you were alone while you were awake, there was another you that was able to touch, to reach your friends. Even if she was always asleep, it was something. It was Important.]

[And now here she is, and she knows people are coming. Rage is HER room, she knows how many are there, running for her, and she doesn't understand because she's not important, she's not she's not she's not but then WHY ARE THEY HERE.]

[Why is he holding her hands, why is he saying these things, when it goes against everything you've been able to feel about yourself for so long.]

[She sobs and falls to her knees, but her hands are still in his, and the clotted blood is starting to thrum with new life.] I'm so tired.

I'm so tired of being the one to perform the miracles. I dunno if I even CAN, and they....they keep havin' me do it alone and I don't-

Heart Game (Continued)

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