[sheba doesn't look at the words. she can't. her gaze is locked on shouxue's face, and fierce, angry tears are streaming down her cheeks, mingling with the rain as it falls. the other girl nods, and she gives a choked sob as she nods back, her hands tightening around her neck.
i'm sorry, she had said at the trial, and shouxue had said, do not apologize.
so she doesn't apologize now, either. if this is all she can do, then it's what she has to do.
do not make me witness this.
she won't. the multitool is on the other side of the room, far out of her reach. and shouxue's suffering has reached a point that she can't heap more on her by taking herself out. the best that she can do is to follow her wishes here.
the rain grows colder, more chilly, and sheba is so focused on choking the air out of shouxue's lungs that she doens't notice as their surroundings shift around them. the rain mixes with sleet, and they find themselves at the top of a lighthouse - one that stretches so high into the sky that it's impossible to see the ground below. there's nothing but clouds beneath them.
wind, rain, and sleet whip around them, bleeding the dye out of shouxue's hair, staining the ground beneath them. behind them, a dragon lies on the ground, grievously injured, while a floating rock with an eye hovers above them, watching. there are people on the lighthouse, too - at one mmoment looking like those who will likely be unfamiliar to most here, at the next flickering into familiar faces: anyone who has ever spent any real length of time with sheba here on the ship, spread out around the dragon, looking weary. but it's only for an instant; in the next moment, they all vanish from sight, glitching away. the dragon glitches, too - first into the form of all those who have died on the ship, and then into nothingness.
sheba sobs, her hands around shouxue's neck, and puts pressure on her to try to keep her still.
no subject
i'm sorry, she had said at the trial, and shouxue had said, do not apologize.
so she doesn't apologize now, either. if this is all she can do, then it's what she has to do.
do not make me witness this.
she won't. the multitool is on the other side of the room, far out of her reach. and shouxue's suffering has reached a point that she can't heap more on her by taking herself out. the best that she can do is to follow her wishes here.
the rain grows colder, more chilly, and sheba is so focused on choking the air out of shouxue's lungs that she doens't notice as their surroundings shift around them. the rain mixes with sleet, and they find themselves at the top of a lighthouse - one that stretches so high into the sky that it's impossible to see the ground below. there's nothing but clouds beneath them.
wind, rain, and sleet whip around them, bleeding the dye out of shouxue's hair, staining the ground beneath them. behind them, a dragon lies on the ground, grievously injured, while a floating rock with an eye hovers above them, watching. there are people on the lighthouse, too - at one mmoment looking like those who will likely be unfamiliar to most here, at the next flickering into familiar faces: anyone who has ever spent any real length of time with sheba here on the ship, spread out around the dragon, looking weary. but it's only for an instant; in the next moment, they all vanish from sight, glitching away. the dragon glitches, too - first into the form of all those who have died on the ship, and then into nothingness.
sheba sobs, her hands around shouxue's neck, and puts pressure on her to try to keep her still.
how can we make this stop?
this is the only way she knows.]