011 ~*~ To those we've left behind

[not_so_great_wall]

[ Action : 340 Brady Lane : Closed ]
[ It's cold. That's how Meiling knows something is wrong. This is not what being "nothing" feels like, right? Being "erased". After being blown away like that, she shouldn't be feeling anything, but she is and that's what draws her out of her sleep.

But she can't sit up because of something else she's feeling. It's a small warm presence laying on top of her under the covers, and whatever — or whoever — it is is... wearing her hat. She smiles softly, flexing her fingers experimentally before she reaches down to pat the head of her little companion. Then she tries to slide off of the bed as carefully as possible while rolling to deposit the blond vampire into the spot she just vacated. No sense in waking her up just because Meiling needed a snack. ]

---

[ Action : Makeout Point : Sunset ]
[ Once the sun approached the horizon, and after flying around aimlessly, Meiling can be found slumped against a tree near the popular parking lot. The trunk of it is bent as if something much, MUCH larger than a woman had slammed right into it, and several torn branches are strewn about the equally large indentation in the ground around her.

This is what happens when one spontaneously loses the ability to fly, while in mid-air. Open landing, she lost the strength and form of her youkai body, so everything about her seemed duller than normal. Her skin was dirty and scraped, her hair was more of a natural red hue than the iconic blazing color one would be used to, and her blue eyes don't have the luster they normally would.

Why should they? They've all said it. She's a replacement; a shell of her former self. Whatever she chose to give up to make everyone happier didn't work at all, and now she's stuck somewhere in the middle of all that, unable to muster up enough energy to even sleep. ]

(OOC: This is all taking place the morning of the "missing" people, and Meiling herself has been erased. Have fun with that!)

Comments

[action, home, AFTER Flandre]

[wizardoftheweek.livejournal.com]

-Patchouli wore black today. After the announcement, it had felt appropriate. She could be found in her room, reading. Reading what? Dante's Inferno, by the look of it...-

[not_so_great_wall]

Patchouli! [ The door bursts open not long after she has woken up, so she's still standing there in the usual loose nightclothes. Her voice is filled with urgency bordering on panic. ] Patchouli, something's wrong with Flandre, she—

[ Oh hang on. What's with the gloomy clothes? She stops and stares on, mouth agape. ]

[wizardoftheweek.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with Flandre. -Patchouli flips a page.- Be gone, drone.

[not_so_great_wall]

But I'm not droned! [ She pleads, but her knees are shaking from the fear of this happening with Patchy, too. ] ...could I proudly talk of the long history of China if I was a drone?

[wizardoftheweek.livejournal.com]

Just because your programming has become more advanced doesn't mean anything to me. You don't smell like Meiling. Or are you going to tell me I'm not a youkai, hmm?

[not_so_great_wall]

I— [ Smell? In an undignified manner, Meiling raises and arm and takes a whiff. Sure, she showered before bed but... she can't have washed that right off. ]

I wouldn't question you!

[wizardoftheweek.livejournal.com]

Well you're certainly not a youkai. Now begone with you.

1/?

[not_so_great_wall]

B-but I am! I am! Just watch, I'll—

[ She stretches out her palms, draws one hand back to herself and concentrates. ]

[not_so_great_wall]

[ ... ]

[not_so_great_wall]

[ ...! ]

[not_so_great_wall]

[ She stops and stares down at her hands. ] My... my body...?

No...

fin

[not_so_great_wall]

[ This can't be happening. Not now. NOT NOW.

Cue panicked flailing. ] Patchouli, I think something's wrong with me, too!

[wizardoftheweek.livejournal.com]

Get. Out. Now.

In case it was not obvious, I am trying to mourn. You may have no concept of understanding just why your very existence is immediately offensive, though. So I will be forced to remove you by force if you do not leave.

1/2

[not_so_great_wall]

[ "Your very existence is offensive..."

"It would be as if you were never born..."

It finally clicks. This is what her mother was talking about. This is what the dream foretold, and the consequences of the choice she had made. Her arms fall limp at her sides and the tears slide down her cheeks unrestrained, though her face displays nothing but shock.

Flandre wasn't the problem. Patchouli wasn't the problem. Meiling... Meiling was always the problem, and now that problem is gone. ]

2/2

[not_so_great_wall]

[ She says something. It's a quiet squeak of a word, which might have been "sorry" or "goodbye" or a dozen meaningless somethings in a couple of choice languages, but it doesn't matter because it would change nothing. It could undo nothing.

The redhead turns. She nearly runs into the doorjamb as she stumbles out of the room, door vaguely closed behind her. She staggers through the bedroom, not even casting a second glance to the bed as she goes for the closet.

If she truly is nothing... then she should just disappear.

She will just grab her clothes, leave her hat, and disappear. ]

[Action] 1/3 welp

[there-were-none.livejournal.com]

[Flandre had been somewhere close to waking up; initially not very much, just enough to fidget a little bit when her bed moved.

...then her injured wing twinged a bit as it was dislodged, and Flandre grumbled a bit, stirring.]

2/3

[there-were-none.livejournal.com]

[Her eyes blink open blearily, she yawns--and catches sight of something moving, which she stares at.]

3/3

[there-were-none.livejournal.com]

[...and stares. And stares.]

Who are you?

[This was...but...no, it wasn't--]

Where's Meiling?

[not_so_great_wall]

[ Meiling pauses in moving, ready with an apology for her friend, but freezes once the words settle in.

She frowns. ] What... are you talking about? I'm right here. [ The redhead carefully reaches her hand out to pat Flandre on the head. ] Did you have a bad dream? Are you still sleepy? [ That has to be why she's mixed up... right? ]

[there-were-none.livejournal.com]

[Flandre shakes her head, violently, as if it were full of cobwebs--when she opened her eyes again, the not-Meiling was about to touch her.

The vampire instinctively snapped at that hand with little warning; her teeth were still quite sharp.]

[not_so_great_wall]

OW! [ The hand was pulled away as Meiling, recoiling from the sudden pain, went tumbling over the edge of the bed. ] F-Flandre! Why did you do that? [ She bolts upright and stares at her, not caring to check the extent of the injury. ]

[there-were-none.livejournal.com]

[As soon as her teeth were free, Flanre started talking--yelling, almost, in a frantic and angry way.]

You're not Meiling--you're not!

[This was a trick. An awful, awful trick. Her voice is as anguished as it is angry, even as she bristles and mantles her wings. The broken one hurt, but no matter now--not with this thing in front of her.]

[not_so_great_wall]

[ It's been some time since she's seen or heard Flandre acting like this, but to think it was because of her...

Wait. That's what the dream said, didn't it? That it would take her out of the lives of others, back from the beginning. Like you weren't even born... ]

[ She tries her best to fight at the frown, but her smile just isn't winning. ] Of— Of course it's me! Look, just give me my hat and I'll show you. [ Meiling reaches her other hand forward, aiming to gently take her cap back. ]

[there-were-none.livejournal.com]

NO! [Flandre snarls as the hand draws near, baring her fangs even as tears well up in her eyes.]

It's Meiling's hat, not--not yours!

[She snaps at this drone's hand again, though a bit slower this time. She shrinks back, her good wing flaring out like she could protect the hat this way.]

[not_so_great_wall]

[ This hurts. Meiling isn't always the sharpest knife in the drawer but right now she's so mixed up that it feels as if something is physically squeezing her inside. She does not draw that hand away, for if she flinched, what would Flandre think? Instead, she endures it, because the pain might break through the nightmare she was very clearly still having. ]

It... it's okay, Flandre. You're just feeling a little... confused. Yeah, that's it! [ Pulling that hand away, slowly. ] Why... why don't you just wait here in bed where it's warm and I'll... I'll ask Patchouli. She'll know — she can help. I know she can!

[there-were-none.livejournal.com]

[Flandre felt awful. Her chest felt cold and heavy and roiling and tight all at once, like she was sick. She had been sleeping, just a bit ago, and everything was right--Meiling was holding her and she was warm and happy even though it was so cold. And then--and then, this.

She lets go of that hand again, slowly. They hadn't run away, just like Meiling wouldn't have--that made it worse.

The little vampire creeps backwards, further into the blankets where it was dark--until only the red disks of her eyes remained, glowing like equally little embers. The growling subsides, until there is only quiet.

Then a single sob.]

[not_so_great_wall]

[ That sob was like a shot right through her heart. Meiling murmured to herself as she backed away from the bed, slowly, not even noticing when she knocked over the lamp off the nightstand, or the clock, or tipped over a chair.

Steadily, her voice grew louder and more desperate as she shook her head. ] No. This... this is all wrong...

This is all wrong all wrong all wrong

MISS PATCHOULI! [ It's like she was calling out for help upon seeing something terrible and tragic; which was right. This was tragic! Something was affecting Flandre and it wasn't just a droning or something that simple. It wasn't anything like that at all.

She scrambles, then, across the cold room to throw open the door, to run into the hall, to pound on the wizard's door. ] Patchouli, I need help!

[ Forget waiting on permission to enter, she busts right in, and... ]

[gezellighe.livejournal.com]

[He's on his way to work when he sees her crash. Once he's hurried over, he's not quite sure it's her until he gets really close, kneeling down.

But as if he's dreaming, he's sure he's seen her before, but he just can't remember her name.]

Are you all right?

[not_so_great_wall]

[ She doesn't really move, head cocked at an angle to the side and down. Her voice is strong, but nowhere her usual level of cheer. ] My shoulder hurts. [ Yep, that arm was sure sitting at an odd angle. It's amazing that it's the worst of the damage to her body, in all honesty. ]

[gezellighe.livejournal.com]

It really doesn't look good.

You should go to the hospital, or maybe if we found somebody with magic. . .

[There were people here with magic, right? It was so hard to remember.]

[not_so_great_wall]

[ She shakes her head. ] I'm not going back to town. Not now, not ever.

[gezellighe.livejournal.com]

You can't stay like this. It hurts, right?

. . . what's your name?

[not_so_great_wall]

Everything hurts, but I'm tougher than that. [ She starts to move, but from her awkward half-rolled position it's kind of hard to lean forward and grip the ground with her good hand to pull herself up. It just ends up with her clawing at the ground. ]

[gezellighe.livejournal.com]

[He'll slowly help her up, being very careful with her shoulder. ]

You don't need to be in pain to show you're tough.

[not_so_great_wall]

[ She takes the aid with a murmur of thanks. ] At least I can still feel something. I guess that means it didn't work completely.

/slow ;-;

[gezellighe.livejournal.com]

. . . are you sure you're feeling okay?

[Because you're talking nonsense, Meiling.]

[Action, Makeout Point]

[bajkaiskierki.livejournal.com]

[Iskierka had been alternately sulking and pacing about in frustrated bursts, after that odd dream. Of course Granby wouldn't say such things--of course not, that was silly.

A shadow passing overhead caught her attention rather abruptly, though; Iskierka's head snapped up immediately. Was that a dragon? It looked like one, at least in the head, but it didn't have any wings at all. But it was still flying--and more importantly, it was bigger than she was.

After instinctively quailing underneath its shadow until it passed out of sighht, Iskierka immediately jumped to her feet and into the air with barely enough time to stretch her wings out. She had remembered how to fly now...! But the icy cold was doing odd things to how she flew, which slowed her down considerably. She had been able to ascertain the maybe-dragon's direction, at least--over that little ridge.


But when she got up here, where she had last seen it--there was no dragon in sight, just a broken tree and a human crumpled up against it. Its captain, maybe--it didn't seem to be wearing any sort of harness, so there probably weren't any other crewmembers.

Well. Best to ask the human, then.]

Are you alive? Did you see where the dragon went?

[Something felt...odd about this human, but Iskierka couldn't put her claws on it exactly.]

[not_so_great_wall]

Alive? Heh. [ Meiling shrugged a shoulder — the one that's not dislocated. ] No one can see me, so maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm just a ghost.

[bajkaiskierki.livejournal.com]

[Iskierka snorts.]

What nonsense is that? I can see you just fine.

[For now, at least. She's not terribly sure what she's looking at, but she's never really seen a human from this perspective before.]

[not_so_great_wall]

You can? [ The redhead raises her face to look toward the dragon.

Pardon the staring. ] Um.

[bajkaiskierki.livejournal.com]

Of course I can. Weren't you listening?

[The end--meaning the last three feet or so--of Iskierka's spiked tail twitches in the snow.]

There was a dragon that went this way. Where did it go?

[not_so_great_wall]

[ Eyes follow that motion. She looks like something out of a comic... ] You're tiny. [ Well, comparatively.

Meiling points at herself. ] You mean me?

[bajkaiskierki.livejournal.com]

I'm not supposed to be!

[Iskierka immediately puffs up indignantly. Her spikes don't hiss ominously with steam like she would like, but they do bristle!

...she still looks about the size of a pony.]

You?

[Now it's the Kazilik's turn to stare. She sounds a bit incredulous.]

[not_so_great_wall]

Sorry. [ For her being tiny, not for pointing it out. ]

Yeah. [ She looks around herself at the wide but shallow dip in the ground in front of her, then cranes her head back to the split trunk of the tree she hit. Poor thing. ] I guess you saw me land.

[bajkaiskierki.livejournal.com]

[Iskierka is still puffed up, but she does trundle forwards a few steps.]

Dragons aren't humans. You look like a human.

[Her head is swaying a bit to the side to get a better look.]

[not_so_great_wall]

But I'm not human. I'm—

I was—

[ Sighing, she slouches forward with a wince. ] I should be...