sticksandbones | The melody that filled the empty me [OPEN]

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The melody that filled the empty me [OPEN]

Who: Till and YOU!
What: Till has arrived! He's freaking the fuck out, it's probably fine dwbi
When: Early March
Where: The Grove, location fluctuates depending
Warnings: References to death and very slight suicidal ideation

[Despite growing up in a part of the wider reaches of the galaxy, Till's universe has always felt very small. Isolated. Contained. Not allowed to do anything less than what is expected of you. Step out of line, act in a way they don't like...

The last thing he remembers is standing alone on that stage. The lights went out, yet he could still feel the icy cold of the simulated rain pelting his face as he stared at Ivan's still-warm corpse.

He walked out on that stage fully expecting to die. This...felt wrong. He shouldn't be still here. So why...?

He blinks, and suddenly the stage is empty. The body is gone, as are all of the aliens watching him as they cheered when the song ended. It's eerily silent, and as he looks out into the great expanse ahead of him, he sees...

Does he know the word? "Mother"? That isn't what they called her. Provider. He is the Creation. When the aliens took him from her, he never knew what became of her. They ripped him, screaming and crying, from her arms. If he's seeing her now because he did die after all...then all the better, honestly.

He throws himself off the stage, and when he collapses into her arms, it all feels...idyllic. He's met with the true world of humanity. The trees, the grass, the clear blue sky. Was it all...just a bad dream?

...

..

.

Till startles awake to the tune of Rusty licking his face, and though it takes him a few long moment to regain consciousness enough to even realize what's going on...he recoils violently, practically throwing his body back to get away from the dog, only for his limbs to lock up on him in a similar way to the feeling he gets when the aliens set off his collar. Fuck. He has no idea that he's been laying in the Nethersea Brand for X amount of time, but thanks to Rusty he'd been dragged out and able to (mostly) recover enough that he isn't completely paralyzed.

Does that mean he's feeling GREAT? Haha, oh no. Hell no. This man has never seen an Earth dog before, do you think he has any idea what happened to him?

As Rusty tries to come back close to him, Till quickly tries to scramble to his feet- falls and eats shit once in the dirt- then manages to drag himself half-upright as he looks forward beyond where he ended up. Though the Grove isn't exactly your fount of beauty...it's grass. Trees. He's outside, and it doesn't feel real. It can't possibly be. It's either a near-death hallucination, or fake like Anakt Garden was.

Holding one of his upper arms for stability, Till's eyes settle on the Grove in front of him. The multitude of buildings large and small that have been cultivated into a small town...even amidst the sprawling city structures of the alien race, it seems foreign. He is, at least, visible at the tree-line to anyone who might be looking from their window.

Because in a fit of panicked desperation, the light on the choker(???) around his neck flashing red, Till turns and starts to stagger into the trees. If he IS outside...he has to run away. If he's found, he won't be killed. No. They'll capture him, and he will WISH they'd killed him.]

===========

[At some point, when Till has been convinced NOT to try to disappear into the Forest forever and fucking die immediately, he will do whatever he can to isolate himself away from everyone else. This is accomplished by Till finding one of the empty Inn rooms and locking himself up in it. He will go so far as to pull the largest piece of furniture he can find over the door to ensure nobody can come in, at which point he's not seen or hear from for...a while.

...

A post appears on the netbook in scratchy, uneven handwriting.]

if youre looking for me then come get me
i dont care anymore
ill tear apart every last one of you who tries
should have years ago

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

got it

[To be honest, he's not sure if he's expecting to see anyone at all. Maybe he'll get to the window and it will be a whole alien force with guns on him? Wouldn't that be funny.

But despite it all, if Steph does go to the Inn and check the upper floor windows, she will indeed see the silver hair of a young man- early twenties, thereabouts- looking outside at the rest of the Grove, clearly keeping his eyes peeled for someone.]

[ She was actually in the inn to start with, so it takes very little time for her to get outside and start circling the building. The first unfamiliar face she sees in an upper story window, she grins and waves. ]

Hey! It's Steph, the human!

[Till has been keeping an eye out, so it isn't difficult to spot her the moment she comes into view. And...

The sight of another person- a normal, HUMAN person- is enough to get him to push the window open.]

Shit. You really...

[So the others weren't lying. There are multiple humans in the mix...Pure Vanilla, Mamika, and now Steph.]

You said you were new, right? What did you mean by that?

Probably the same as you, right? I was somewhere else, and then suddenly I was here.

[ It's not super comfortable to shout this conversation, but the poor guy is clearly in a bad way. If the distance helps, she can put up with it. ]

That was about a month ago. Not sure how you got here? Don't remember being kidnapped?

[This definitely isn't the most efficient or convenient way to do it, but...he doesn't look like he's coming down. Not yet, anyway. He's got a big mouth, he doesn't mind shouting when he needs to.]

A month.

[His grip tightens on the window sill.]

It was like that for me too, yeah. That was...a couple hours ago, now.

[ She stares up at him, considering, her hands propped on her hips. ]

Nobody here has threatened me. I've stayed away from the obviously dangerous stuff outside, and I haven't been hurt at all. I don't know how or why we were brought here, but it wasn't to hurt us.

[ At least, not ONLY that, and not right away. There are still plenty of unpleasant possibilities. ]

Is someone after you right now? Someone you've seen in the last few hours? If they are, I can help. If not, you're about as safe as anyone on a strange planet could be.

Tch. It's easier to say who isn't probably after me...

[Till looks up at the sky, still feeling like it's very much only a matter of time before his door is broken in and he's taken into custody. The barricade he set up won't do a whole lot of good against Aliens with advanced tech, after all.]

Mamika...said this place was a resistance. She seems nice enough and one of the only other humans I saw here, so...I'm kindof more inclined to believe her. [As opposed to someone like A.B.A, who immediately tried to kill him on sight.] Which means if you ain't been hurt in a month, you just got lucky.

[His gaze shifts back down to Steph, meeting hers even at the distance they're at.]

You asked me if I was familiar with "multiverse theory"? No. But if you know about the wider universe and shit, then you'd know what Aliens are. That's what's after me. And after you, too, if they find you.

[ She raises an eyebrow. There are so many problems with everything he's just said, but probably the biggest is leaning out the window while worrying about aliens coming to get him. Does he really think windows are safe? ]

Can I come up there? I think we need to really talk. And I think I probably know a lot more about how to secure a room than you do.

[He...wants to argue that, like fuck you he's great at making barricades, but that would be a lie. He escaped once for like an hour when he was a child and didn't even stay gone, so what does he know about keeping a door locked?

Plus...Steph is very visibly human, to him. He doesn't know of a single Alien who looks at all like they do, because they consider them to be gross and inferior. It'd be like pretending you were a dog.

Anyway yeah don't worry about him he's totally fine-

He seems visibly unsure. Like he's considering it, but he's still wary, like a stray cat who doesn't want to be around people.]

...fine. I'll unlock the door, come up.

[ Oh good, she can wait to point out the window until she's inside. It would have come off as kind of threatening, probablby, if she was still outside said window, but she doesn't want him leaving himself open if an attack really does come. ]

I'll be right there!

[ She is indeed very fast. She knows as well as anyone how scary it can be in an unlocked room when you're feeling unsecure. She knocks, but keeps her voice much lower now. ]

Hey, it's me.

[Yeah maybe just a little!!

Anyway, while she's making her way up to his room, Till will painstakingly pull the dresser away from the door, making sure there's nothing barring it so she can come in. Of course, he also doesn't, like...get up to get the door, or anything. He'll just call out from where he's sitting on the foot of his bed, eyeing the door warily.]

S'open.

[ She comes in and quietly closes the door behind her. Now that she can actually make out his expression and body language, he looks a little like a cornered cat. It makes her heart ache, a bit. She remembers what that feels like. She offers a small smile. ]

Thanks for trusting me. Still, I'm gonna take a wild guess that you don't want to be locked in here with me.

[Till looks at Steph sidelong, and...it isn't quite a smile he offers her, but more of a derisive, sarcastic smirk. Yeah, he doesn't want to be locked in here with her, but also not with anyone really.]

I don't really trust you, but there ain't many other humans here.

[Which isn't...surprising, but is also strange in its own right. He still hasn't gotten a full grasp on what's going on in this place, and it doesn't help that the information and signals he's getting from people are thoroughly mixed. It's not their fault of course, not when he already has such a specific idea of how things "should" be.]

Completely fair. [ She wouldn't trust a total stranger either, even if she wasn't in defensive mode like he clearly is. ]

So, listen. What I said about Earth, that isn't a lie. I don't know how you ended up wherever you were, but the planet and the people are fine. Water, sun, plants, more than 7 billion humans, the whole 9 yards.

[He's listening, but what he hears is...not fathomable to him. Earth is more of a children's story than reality for someone who wasn't even born there, the human race originating there but no longer inhabiting it. Till only knows what the Aliens have allowed him to know, though he has reached an age where he isn't just going around blindly accepting everything he's told as fact.

Which she is seeing first hand.]

That's why you brought up multiple universes, or whatever. Cause there's no way that's mine.

[ She shrugs. ]

It's possible. I've got nothing on motive for who- or what-ever brought us here, so it's just as possible that we were brought to a different planet, or that I'm from far in your past. Like it's possible that a planet you've never been to was able to recover from whatever happened to it.

It's been invaded and almost destroyed kind of a lot, actually. And I hate to break it to you, but usually it's people from other planets that help protect it.

[That gets Till's attention. He looks at her quickly, his brows furrowing.]

People from other planets? What do you mean by that?

Kryptonians, Martians, probably other planets I'm forgetting... They're heroes, and they've saved more lives than I could count. I don't know what sort of aliens you've been dealing with, but they're the kind that these people would risk their lives fighting.

Heroes...?

[That's such a lofty word to assign...anyone. Nobody from where he's from is a hero, because they're all just trying to survive to the next day. It's not guaranteed, and if you're chosen for the Stage, you won't live to see your next birthday unless you win the competition.

Honestly, he's never really thought that far.

He turns to look at Steph, his expression grave.]

So why haven't they come to save mine?

[ Her own expression is something much closer to grief than pity. Whatever is happening in his corner of the multiverse, she doesn't have to be told outright that people are dying. People like Till, probably his friends and family. And there's nothing she can do about it. She hates that, for him, for her, for all of them. ]

They don't know about it. Maybe it's too far, maybe it's another time, maybe it really is a different universe, I don't know. But I promise you, if they knew about it they would go.

[Deep down, Till knows that blaming some unknown, distant universe "heroes" for not coming to save his world is unfair. He is a victim of circumstance, of being born at the wrong place and time, maybe...should he have existed a couple thousand years prior, maybe he never would have been forced to live the life he has.

But then again, he wouldn't be the person he is now, either.

Till hunches over, looking back over at the wall.]

Mm. Don't matter anyway, I guess.

[The damage has already been done. He's pretty sure if some other-planetary beings came to try to stop the Aliens, they'd be prepared to fight back. There's no way they'd be stopped, at the height of power and tech they've reached.]

[ She looks away, feeling a little guilty for not being able to help more. This isn't actually what she'd meant to talk about. ]

The point I'm trying to make is, not all aliens are the same. Most of the people here are really nice, and not a lot of them are human.

[...]

That's not really what I'm used to. ...but I don't have much choice but to believe you.

[Not trust, but at least take her words at face value. What good would it do her to lie to him, at this point?]

Only one of you has threatened to kill me, so that's a plus.

[ She blinks. ]

Who was that?

[ She would like to make a note, please. ]

[Till scoffs.]

Green haired chick. Big tail, wings...I was literally just standing there and she threatened to kill me if I didn't move out of her way. Twice. Then she locked me in this building.

[Nobody tell Till you can't lock the Inn from the outside-]

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