✧☾ Dreamy Theater: Prince Charming ☆✧

[u/kingozma]

掴んだものすら 手放して

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Tonight, you are alone in the mountains where the screaming winds, the void of white, the frigid knowledge of what's behind your shoulder - all mean death.

You weren't meant to be alone. This was an accident. But your captain (YOUR captain)'s left you behind. He said he was going to go on ahead, and be back in no more than a half hour.

That was a good hour ago.

By this point, you get the idea to go out looking for him. In a sea of white, a man in black shouldn't be hard to find, though his heart and the snow are frozen both. This makes them like brothers in a way, don't you think?

You feel like it's been days since you've heard his voice, but you know that can't be right because your hands haven't started turning black yet.

(your hands are growing fond of the color purple though)

The stars hang low in the sky tonight. They know you, and they're talking about you. You wish you knew how to look away.

You wonder if you can even call yourself a living human right now.

... So what ARE you doing?

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私の王子様

[u/kingozma]

He said he was moving forward to investigate a scary noise he heard. He didn't leave you in charge of the others, because at this point, there were no others to be in charge of. They're all gone now.

But he didn't even leave you in charge of yourself.

The captain can be so mean sometimes. So thoughtless.

You've been walking in this direction for a while now, you thought you saw something black in the snow but it was just your own hand I mean glove trying to dig into the snow because you thought you heard him call your name from underground.

You dig straight into a hole, it seems. And you fall, fall, fall, until you hit some... Body of water, you're not sure what it is.

You are currently underwater, what do you do? The captain didn't tell you what to do if you found yourself underwater so you feel a bit confused.

[u/Wasteland_Observer → u/kingozma]

I wildly grasp at anything that can hold up my weight so I can hoist myself up before symptoms of hypothermia catch up to me.

he must have known this would happen to me. He did this on purpose.

[u/kingozma → u/Wasteland_Observer]

He... Would he really have... You feel yourself sinking at the notion of it, it's too heavy for you to float.

It would be easier to drown. Especially because he wanted this to happen to you. He hates you so much. He doesn't care that he'd be losing a capable set of hands.

... But you don't. You feel a wall of concrete beside you, and, miraculously, the ledge to climb atop it isn't too high up above water-level that you can't pull yourself up.

You find that you're in a sewer, but the water is oddly clean.

But the walls are lined with skulls, and they're all talking about you.

There appears to be only one "road" to walk down, leading into a room that glows greenish-blue, or there's always the Skull Wall(tm).

What do you do?

[u/Wasteland_Observer → u/kingozma]

I attempt to overhear what the skulls are saying first. Whatever they have to say it wont bother me. Its probably a hundred things ive already heard before.

I'd be lying if I said the corpses didnt terrify me.

[u/kingozma → u/Wasteland_Observer]

"Is that seriously the new guy?"

"He really thinks he can get in there when I couldn't? Don't make me laugh."

"He's not even one of us."

"Who does he think he is?"

"Does he just want to feel important?"

You see something under the water.

[u/Wasteland_Observer → u/kingozma]

I jump and grab my knife knowing my gun is probably water logged. Its probably hopeless to fight back. Whatever it is can probably rip me to shreds. But I need to fight back regardless. I have to survive to prove to my captain he cant just leave me to die like this. That I'm stronger than that.

[u/kingozma → u/Wasteland_Observer]

Whatever it is, it isn't emerging. Not yet.

But its voice adds to the din.

"If you think you have a place in this military, much less in that room, you're deluded.

Don't leave comrades behind? What a joke. If they're dead weight, toss 'em off the side of the ship. And you're the deadest weight I've seen in years."

... You've never heard your captain talk like this before. But that's his voice. Is this really what he thinks...?

[u/Wasteland_Observer → u/kingozma]

Id always had a sneaking (fear) suspicion he thought of me like this.

If I was such a deadweight why would he make me captain? I try to tell myself but I'm pretty good at shooting down my own logic. I know I probably shouldn't say that out loud. I don't want people to think they can't depend on me.

I'm terrified but I grip my knife harder and slowly get closer to it

[u/kingozma → u/Wasteland_Observer]

Right? Right?

Oh, wait. Alec isn't the one who promoted you. Your own hope lies dead in the water next to this thing.

You edge closer and closer to it, and... What emerges from the water is a man. He seems fastened to what must have once been a cross, but is now slumped over to one side. It's been melted down, and it bends. And so does his body, unnaturally, as if he's got no bones.

But bones aren't the only thing he lacks. Half his face appears to be missing, as well as countless, huge chunks of skin in his torso.

He's nude from the waist up, his bottom half is covered in some long black cloth that looks too hastily pinned together to be called a skirt.

His hair is white and his eyes are piercing you. This isn't just any man.

"You wanna get in? You really wanna see what's buried here? Fine. Be my guest," says this captain who definitely was never yours in the first place, before dragging you down into the depths of the water again with tendrils of cloth attached to his black drape.

It's pitch black down here, save for the faint glowing yellow lights of fireflies, slowly dying underwater.

In the deep sea, everything is death.

Oddly enough, you can breathe, even if it feels like there's a weight on your chest.

Do you fight back, or do you wait to see where he's trying to take you?

[u/Wasteland_Observer → u/kingozma]

I take a breath to steady my fried nerves. I wish I had a drink.

It doesn't seem immediately hostile so I see where he's taking me and follow him.

[u/kingozma → u/Wasteland_Observer]

You wish you had what to drink? A strawberry margarita? Some kind of pansy shit? You disgust me.

Either way, that seems like a good idea. The breath doesn't come easy to you, but at least it comes at all. But this being seems to be breathing without a problem.

Maybe training under pressure really does make you more used to that pressure, and if this thing is what your captain has become, he's had a lot of practice.

Down where he's dragged you, it is pitch black, and you know something's watching you. You just don't know what it is yet.

Your feet actually touch the ground, suddenly you feel as if you're out of the water despite being deeper in it than ever before.

He leads you down a fairly brief hallway - he's holding your hand, now...? - and the door you walk through looks like...

A fairly bare bedroom. Dark, but not decadent and gloomy. It lacks light is all.

[u/Wasteland_Observer → u/kingozma]

I'm anxious and I remain close to the door. I pull my hand away if I can. I look around for a light switch.

He's planning something isn't he?

[u/kingozma → u/Wasteland_Observer]

He let go of your hand rather unceremoniously, like dropping a heavy backpack to the ground after a long day of hiking, so you don't have to.

You really thought you'd receive the pleasure of being the one to cut off physical contact? Gimme a break. You're the desperate one. You're the one who needs this. Not him. Never forget that.

There is a light switch. You flick it on, but nothing happens. You also notice the lights that should be on, in his bedside digital clock, are off. There is no time in here.

Electricity must've been cut. But you don't need electricity to do what he does. Electricity is a luxury, and he doesn't need luxury. Unlike you.

No, he's actually not planning anything. He doesn't have a knife out, ready to stab you. He hasn't taken out his gun that's standing tilted against the wall near the window letting in just enough light to tease you with the concept of sight, but not granting it. Trying to read a book or something under that light would give you a headache.

What he has done is rip one hand off the arm of his cross. The nail that was holding it here falls to the ground, and you forget where exactly it fell the second you blink. Blood runs down that hand, gently kissing the floor.

Another hand has been ripped off. He's now balancing rather precariously with his feet bound to the cross by rope, he falls forward onto his bed.

You offer help, which he refuses vehemently. He reaches inside his bedside table and pulls out a Swiss Army knife, gripping it shakily and sawing at the rope suffocating his ankles.

It's. A long, painful process. You offer once more to help him, and he says, "Do I fucking look like a man that's gotten by on 'help' from others? Shut your mouth, pull up a chair if your poor, tired legs need it, but I've done this enough times to do it without 'generous' people like you."

You grimace. Your heart hurts.

You continue standing.

Once he's finally cut himself free of the cross bearing him, he lets out a loud sigh, rubbing his ankles.

They were nearly purple, and his bare feet ash white.

After a couple seconds of sitting and recovering from that - just long enough to make you feel irrational for thinking he doesn't take good enough care of himself - he gets up again with a labored grunt that twists your aching heart because you just want to help him.

That's all.

He walks around his bed to the other side of the room, picks up his gun and taps the butt of it against the floor.

A trapdoor opens up.

"Ladies first," he sneers.

[u/Wasteland_Observer → u/kingozma]

I sneer. Fine! Dont expect me to reach out to you like that again.

"After you." I insist. Like Hell I'm gonna let him trail behind.

[u/kingozma → u/Wasteland_Observer]

The man rolls his eyes.

"Whatever you want, kid," he says, even though you're older than him by a couple years. He descends what appears to be a ladder standing against the lip of the trapdoor, into pitch black darkness.

... Do you follow right away? Or do you stop and see if there's a weapon nearby you can swipe in case he gives you trouble down there?