"...I'm not sure what would be appropriate. Or if I would have the right."
(A flashback; the mental image is so strong. A steel facility, austere and corporate. A musical alarm plays from the speakers, but the screaming has almost stopped. Too many are dead to scream. Bodies litter the halls, burnt, broken, sliced open, half-eaten, many with their chests burst outwards like something ripped out of their ribcages, and Jean is watching -
- Watching -
- What was their name? They furiously enter a code into a keypad, and their ponytail is coming loose from its tie. It's never loose. They were always so tidy and now they're a wreck, covered in gore, a strange sword hanging loose in their free hand. The fingers are broken.
They turn and smile at Jean (what's their name, their name, what is their name...) and murmur, "It'll be okay."
No. No wait. Jean knows that room, not that room, wait, wait -
The door opens, revealing a clock with all four lights lit up, and the last Jean sees of their friend (their friend their friend what's their name no no no) is them grasping the key on the clock.
The world reverts. The halls are clean. Everyone is alive.
Jean never sees their tidy friend again.)
"...I should interview you. Later. This is...this is not the time, I think. A solemn heart..." Jean looks down at the mound again. "Comrade, what is it, to mourn?"
CW gore, death, unexistence
(A flashback; the mental image is so strong. A steel facility, austere and corporate. A musical alarm plays from the speakers, but the screaming has almost stopped. Too many are dead to scream. Bodies litter the halls, burnt, broken, sliced open, half-eaten, many with their chests burst outwards like something ripped out of their ribcages, and Jean is watching -
- Watching -
- What was their name? They furiously enter a code into a keypad, and their ponytail is coming loose from its tie. It's never loose. They were always so tidy and now they're a wreck, covered in gore, a strange sword hanging loose in their free hand. The fingers are broken.
They turn and smile at Jean (what's their name, their name, what is their name...) and murmur, "It'll be okay."
No. No wait. Jean knows that room, not that room, wait, wait -
The door opens, revealing a clock with all four lights lit up, and the last Jean sees of their friend (their friend their friend what's their name no no no) is them grasping the key on the clock.
The world reverts. The halls are clean. Everyone is alive.
Jean never sees their tidy friend again.)
"...I should interview you. Later. This is...this is not the time, I think. A solemn heart..." Jean looks down at the mound again. "Comrade, what is it, to mourn?"