knightofchanges | dream ✠ 002

"Off with his head!"

Tick tock -- A clock face. There is no hour hand or minute hand. Just the second hand. With each tick and tock, it appears.

A cold woman's voice, and her face briefly appeared. Queen Vivaldi in all her fury.

The faceless head rolled past, the blood leaving a trail back to its slumped over corpse. Above it was the calm Knight of Hearts, his sword still dripping with blood as he looked over his work. "At least it was quick," he said in an all too cheerful voice.

As he turned to walk away, dark shadows emerged to engulf the headless corpse, their blackness growing until it absorbed everything but the knight.

Once again the order rang out -- Off with his head! -- and another head rolled.

Tick

And another.

Tock

And another.

Tick

And another.

Tock

Bodies lay before him, and he simply walked over them as if they were nothing, his expression calm and that eerie smile never leaving. It was as if he did not see the blood or the bodies before him, as if he was just taking another walk through the park.

Tick

Slowly the bodies started to rise, their heads still faceless as they moved. They jerk and twitch, contorting this way and that as parts of them change. A male turns to female, a teenager to a child. Those whom had lost heads and limbs regenerate. When each finish their transformation, they suddenly lunge at Ace's unguarded back, guns and knives appearing out of thin air.

Tock

He turned and his sword immediately plunged through the nearest body before it slid out and slashed through two others.

Tick

A head rolled, an arm dropped.

Tock

He was staring right into a faceless person.

Tick

A loud bang. An explosion of flesh.

Tick

The body fell backwards to reveal two things:

Tock

The once faceless canvas was ripped to shreds, the flesh torn back to reveal a gory mess of tissue, muscle, and bone.

Tick

Smoke slowly rose up from the barrel of a shotgun. Though in truth, it was more like a shotgunblade. Despite it having a shotgun barrel, there were sharp sword blades attached above and below it which helped conceal the opening. Until one looked straight down in it.

Tock

He was bloody, particularly his face. It was splattered with blood and bits of flesh. There was no smile on his face as he stared down at the corpse before he shot again. His weapon then changed back to its original form as a normal sword and was sheathed. The body disappeared and there was only one thing left on the ground.

Tick

A small, gold watch.

Tock

He stared at the watch in his hand, the face slightly cracked and the gears stopped. It was lifeless, broken. Ace then looked up, a small, hollow smile on his lips.

Tick

An ocean of broken clocks lay before him. And bodiless shadows were descending on them.

Tock

--------------------------------------

Hm...two down, one to go.

[that same smile from his dream will be the one he's wearing right now, and his tone is rather pleasant. perhaps too pleasant.]

Hmm, I'm curious. What happens when a person dies here? [take that however you want it to mean |D]

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But what do you mean by that, I wonder?

It doesn't really matter, does it?

[Slight pout]

I-I guess not, but it does make me curious, it does.

[chuckles] Maybe I'll tell you if you can answer my question.

Hm? You mean about what happens when people die here?

Yep!

Well...a few months ago some of my friends died here but...they didn't stay dead. It was strange, they came back after about a week perfectly fine.

Almost perfect that is, that is.

[...hm]

So they came back to life...? [silent for a moment before a small laugh] So it's not really different here either.

[Tilts head to the side slightly]

Do people come back to life in your world too...?

[smiles] In a sense.

You have a heart don't you?

Eh? Y-yes, of course I do. Why do you ask?

[here Rena. he's going to hold up his Dreamberry to his chest.

hear that ticking sound? that's his heart.]

[Doesn't understand why he's holding his dreamberry there at first until she hears it. That faint, steady ticking noise. A chill goes down her spine as she listens to it.]

That sound...d-does that mean...

[and you get to see his cheerful face again :D]

Without the clocks, we can't live. When a person dies, they can be reborn again so long as the clocks can be fixed. That is why they are important. [cold smile is cold] But I hate them.

Edited 2010-01-19 02:42 (UTC)

[That smile of his isn't very reassuring though D:]

Why do you hate them? Isn't having the option of living again a good thing?

I'm afraid I wasn't clear. When someone dies, they're gone forever. Just replaced by someone else. Unless they're a role holder, they have no purpose, anyway.

Oh...that does make a difference. I'm not sure if I would like being replaced by someone else when I died either, when I died.

I'm not sure if I prefer this world's ways, either.

You mean...you would rather stay dead if you died here?

[laughs] I prefer not dying! [and small smile] But wouldn't it make your life meaningless?

Edited 2010-01-19 03:11 (UTC)

Meaningless in what way? You mean if you die only to be brought back to life again?

In some ways, yes.

What's the point of taking care of your own life if you'll be reborn exactly like new again? In my world, you don't have any value to begin with, so in the end it really doesn't matter whether you live or die. Here, it's even worse. You outsiders always seem to find life precious, but how can it still be that way here?

That may be true, but I think it would be better to value your life then be stuck in a cycle of throwing it away.

Besides...dying is not a very fun thing to go through.

I'd imagine not. How did you die, anyway? [sensitivity? what sensitivity.]

[His question catches her off guard and she's at a lost for words for a moment. Technically she's died in more ways than one, but to make things less complicated she'll tell him the last one she knows.]

Gunshot to the head...