outdistanced | turbo heaven 🌼 chrono

[ the mirrors are disorientating enough, and chrono barely has time to register that they're even mirrors at all before the reflective sheen gives way to the images beneath, through, around.

stealing body parts. laurence had mentioned it before, but it had sounded so far removed from your baseline reality that the impact hadn't really registered. seeing these eyes - real eyes, taken - laid out like product was sickening.

and as for laurence...

chrono slowly moves beside him, not touching, but close. if he feels ill from seeing this, it can only be a fraction of how laurence must be affected. ]

When did... this...?

[ laurence is taking a step back from the mirrors, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. he already feels sick seeing that room again, horror show that it is, but this time he keeps his lunch, at least. ]

...Not long. I only learned a few weeks before we got here.

Shit.

[ his arm is held out behind laurence's back, ready to support him if needed. there's a lot to process - where were they? why was this being shown, exposed like this?

demiflora hunting demiflora... the pressure being put on laurence to find and fix things. so much at once. ]

This is what made you leave? To find him?

[ he does look okay - or as okay as anyone would be, reliving something like that. but he shakes his head. ]

I didn't leave. I- I can't, not yet. I can go between cities, but I'm not strong enough to find a person yet. And leaving the Tower... it's still dangerous.

[ where else would he even go? ]

You were training?

[ so he ended up here before finding him. that's... some bad timing. ]

This was your friend you spoke about before, wasn't it. Iris.

[ he nods, to both. ]

Same idiot. And yeah - but I have to be careful about training to not get caught. So it's tricky, and a lot slower than I wish it was.

...guess you're pretty keen for this whole thing to be over. To get back.

[ pats his shoulder. and looks up at the mirrors. ]

Where the hell are we?

Yeah... Maybe if I could practice while we're here, it wouldn't be so bad, but there's no way.

[ looks at these horrible mirrors. ]

I... don't know? These mirrors are so weird.

We should try and find a way out. There's somethin' messed up happening here.

[ and though they move, the mirrors shift again. the memory that begins seems gentle, simple, but chrono immediately goes dead still when he realises what it is. ]

There's always something messed up going on in here.

[ but that's beside the point. they should leave, but when chrono stills, so does laurence, glancing over to see what caught his attention this time.

...oh. this feels like something he shouldn't have seen, somehow, even if he doesn't fully understand what's going on. so he'll just. gently nudge the other with his elbow. ]

Hey. You alright?

[ as the memory plays out, something that had been entirely (unwillingly) in his own head, it's hard to fight down the urge to break a mirror.

he flinches as laurence makes contact, shaking his head. ]

It's because of that stupid question they asked on the phones this morning.

That thing about the simulation.

[ the question that disturbed laurence too much to even try to answer. ]

So that whole thing - it really was just some kind of dream?

My mom died when I was three.

[ which seems enough to answer the question, and explain his anger.

the five of them, just children. and the one adult, already in the pillar of light, trying his hardest to prevent them from having to fight at all. ]

It was a taunt. We were always going to wake up - he needed us awake to finish things. But we saw what he wanted us to see. That fake "ideal".

[ oh. yeah, that explains a lot. they seemed so happy, too - not the picture of family that laurence knows, but a happier one by far.

awful, to show someone what could have been. kind of like the effects from the week before. he hates it. ]

What kind of a screwed up taunt is that? There are other ways to mess with someone's heads - or better yet, don't play any mind games at all.

[ chrono snorts, mirthless. ]

Yeah, well, that was kind of his thing. That, and claiming to "hate violence", like he didn't try and kill me twice anyway. Don't know what my dad ever saw in him.

Sorry, the buy tried to kill you?

Yeah. Twice.

What the hell for?!

[ ...shrugs. awkwardly. ]

Wanted me to join him. I said no. Turns out megalomaniacs get pretty pissed when you tell them their genocidal ideas are shit, no matter how much garbage they spout about peace.

...Guess that makes sense. Madam is kind of the same way.

Was that the guy you said your dad worked with before?

[ the one who turned chrono into some kind of science experiment. ]

...she's in charge of the Tower, right? So, Iris's mom?

[ hm

anyway ]

Yeah. Myoujin. He and my dad had a pretty bad falling out after that, which he never got over, I guess.

That's her.

I guess if they're that insane in the first place, you can't really expect them to be normal about something like that.

So that's kind of... her "ideal", then? The way you make it sound.

[ those eyes, then... there's always a payoff.

chrono's expression flickers, and he starts moving again with a kind of. pat to laurence's arm to prompt him to follow. ]

He did genuinely think he was doin' the right thing. World peace, sounds great on the surface, right.

Don't know if I'd call it an ideal. But she always talks about things like - honesty, and trust, because "if demiflora can't trust each other, who can we trust?" But she's the one using all of us, and hurting people who learn too much.

[ he'll follow, frowning. ]

Maybe it's a little different if you really think it's the right thing. But I guess everything's too complicated to be solved that easily.

[ he nods, though the motion at this point makes his head spin unpleasantly. ]

It's all just contradictions. Speakin' against violence until it suits your goals. Preachin' about trust while lying to people's faces.

[ it all feels a bit familiar, here. ]

Too complicated, and not the call of a single person to decide what's best for everyone else. It's selfish.

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