| The Final Voice | ||
|---|---|---|
| |
Just like the other floors, the 3rd floor has bright blue paint on the walls, the color interupted only by the lights, false candles on their electric bases attached to the walls. Each apartment door is a solid polished wood, mahogany, and all stamped with a number and a letter. These are from 3A to 3E. After leaving the elevator, Tabitha glances at the doors in the hallway nervously. She remembers clearly Sun welcoming her to drop by, but this is a bit different. The guilt of running out after her hospitality still weighing heavily in the girl's mind. Well, one of them anyways. The neko is becoming quite used to the other voices randomly spilling a sentence or two into her train of thought but the replay of her last night here currently carries the most weight. It suddenly occurs to Tabitha how strange it is that Sun seems to have the floor to herself. With all the people living here, how did she manage that? Maybe they just didn't want their names on the doors? Summoning her courage, the girl raises a fist and knocks on the door twice. Briefly she ponders making a run for it, but instead she clutches the borrowed clothes she intended to return tighter. It's not like she can go anywhere else at the moment... Bandages have been applied, a bit of alcohol has been consumed to numb the pain, and Sun isn't feeling quite as bad as she did earlier -- physically, at least. When Tabitha's knock sounds upon the door, the dragoness is sitting on the couch with her knees brought up to her chest, her forehead resting on her knees. She lifts her head to offer the door a long frown, before slowly raising to her feet, making her way toward the door. After standing in front of it for a long moment and almost scowling at the door knob, as if it is the cause for this disturbance. Finally, she reaches down and opens the door, blinking a few times at Tabitha. "Sa--" She stares for a long moment, looking rather shocked, before shaking her head. No, that's not right. After a moment, she steps back, holding the door open. "Hey, Tabby. Come on in." Nevermind the fact that she is all bandaged up and looks like she just had a fight with a semi, and lost. Sun's Apartment: Living Room A quaint little place; a couch is along the wall to the left, which is next to a rather nice looking Laz-Y Boy recliner/rocker; on a table is a modest sized television, complete with a PS2, VCR, and DVD player. A kitchen is set off to the right, large enough to make food, and have a table in the dining area. And then there's a window along the wall to let light in. Tidy, quaint...looks like the tennant rarely 'LIVES' here. A little hallway leads to the master bedroom door to the left, and the bathroom across from that, and between those lies the door to a spare bedroom. Tabitha looks like a dear in the headlights of a speeding car as the door finally opens up. Sun's appearance doesn't help matters, but obediently Tabitha follows behind. Stepping just inside the door she closes it and leans her back against it. "....uuuum, hi Sun." There's no excitement in her voice. The dread she's carrying on her shoulders is taking care of that. "I, uh... I... I brought you your clothes back!" She holds them out at arm's length like a prize waiting to be delivered. As Tabby steps in, Sun lets the door close behind her...and promptly turns and moves back over to the couch without accepting Tabby's clothes. "Thanks, just set 'em down anywhere..." She sounds tired too, her voice carrying the slight airy tone that comes with fatigue. She promptly flops on the couch, sprawling out a little bit more and rubbing at one of the bandages wrapped around her torso. After a moment, she seems to remember herself, and straightens a bit with a slight wince. "Sorry for my lack of manners. If you see a guy named Oblivion, wears a helmet and a cape...don't pick a fight with him, he'll kick your ass into next Sunday." That sweet lady is picking fights with people now? There's definitely something different about her... Tabitha's expression changes to one of dejection, at least until Sun becomes more talkative. Slowly taking a few overly cautious steps into the room, the girl places the clothes on the coffee table she'd previously flipped and quickly takes a step back. She looks over Sun nervously before offering, "...I take it you've had a bad couple'a days?" With a wince, the dragoness shifts a bit into a more comfortable position, rubbing at her leg where she got kicked last night. "Yeah, pretty damned bad." She adjusts a little more, before leaning back and closing her eyes. After a moment, she gestures to the rest of the couch, which is empty. "Feel free to sit down. If you want anything to drink, kitchen's open. Sorry, normally I'd get it for you, but...yeah." She sighs softly. "What's been up with you? Been a little while since I've seen you." After a moment or two of hesitation, Tabitha finally caves and sits on the couch as far over from Sun as she can manage. "Well... I was with Xue who was trying ta help me with.. um.. the other me's." The girl crosses her arms tightly across her lap, almost hugging herself. "A-apparently it was Diablo's fault. Something about messin' with my head." Tabitha has begun to shake a little. "So there's at least four of me now, and there's not much I c'n do about it." She looks up at Sun finally, revealing her eyes to be glazed over in a struggle to keep tears from flowing. "Everytime Xue tried ta find out more everythin' got worse. Now I'm randomly wakin' up and I look like some little kid 'cause 'Tabby' figured out how ta do it without stabbin' herself." ...and the tears start. "...an' I think one of them is crazy an' made Xue try ta stab me." She wipes her eyes and looks away, not even bothering to fight the wet works anymore. "I don't know where ta go and I'm scared ta go back to my room since I'm scared of Diablo finding me!" She seems like she wants to say more, but instead the girl buries her face in her hands as she's now too ashamed to continue. The dragoness tenses at the mention of Xue, for some reason. She reaches a hand up, rubbing at her forehead, making herself push that down. All of these new memories feel rather foreign to her, floating around in her head like they are, and they are distracting her too much from what's important. After a moment, she reaches out, gently placing a hand on Tabby's shoulder. "It's okay. You're still welcome here any time you need a safe place." She smiles faintly. "Just don't flip the coffee table over again if you can help it, okay?" Tabitha tries to laugh at the comment about the table but it comes out more like a muffled sob. Sniffling, she tries to wipe her eyes with the palms of her hands, taking a deep breath or two in the process. "Th-thank you. I-I just don't know anywhere else ta go that Diablo won't be able ta find me at an' I don't think I can deal with him until I c'n get..." She shakes her hands at her head trying to find the right description, "ME under control." The girl wipes her eyes again. "I'm sorry for all this." The dragoness gently rubs the girl's shoulder, shaking her head. "It's okay. This is what friend are for, right?" She guesses that's the case. She's not sure right now, her brain is still fuzzy, and the alcohol she's been working on hasn't helped much. "I'll keep you as safe as I can." She nods in confirmation of her statement. "Sorry if I seem off, it's been a long week, and my head doesn't feel like it's entirely my own right this minute." That probably came out wrong. Tabitha finally manages a smile at the friend comment and the tears seem to trail off shortly afterwards. The girl takes one of those deep breaths again and shakes her head. "It's funny, kinda. You show up right when I needed help with my fake Mom's name, an' you're telling me you'll keep me safe." She actually manages to chuckle slightly at that. "Jeeze, my life's messed up these days." Rubbing at her now red eyes, the girl finally tries to relax and looks over to face Sun. "It has definitely been a long week, an' I don't need ta be intruding on you. Is there somethin' I can do ta help you out? Somethin' to repay you somehow?" The dragoness grins faintly, waving a hand. "It's no problem, really. Alterior motives and the like. While you're here, you can help me out while I heal." She winks, gently smoothing Tabby's hair down. "In all seriousness, it'd be nice to have someone to help out around the house while I'm recovering from my poorly planned fight." She rubs at her forehead. "And if you want, I can probably help you with the whole waking up looking like a little kid...if you want to look older, that is." She smiles. "Can't make you younger, though." Tabitha can't help but roll her eyes. "Well, it's not like it happens everytime I fall asleep. I kinda mean from when... 'she' takes over. When I wake up from that. I'm just not sure how it happens yet. I c'n fix it when she does but it's embarrassing." She blushes just thinking about it. "Anyways, I can help! I'm good at helpin'! I c'n cook, clean, all that stuff!" ...and if she's lucky she can stop thinking about her own problems while she does it. "Well, for now, there's a frozen pizza in the freezer. Think you can wrestle that into submission and baking it up all tasty like?" Sun leans back, reaching for her glass of some amber colored liquor. "Never get your wings halfway burnt off, by the way. It fuckin' hurts like the devil." She leans back, closing her eyes. "Sorry I'm no fun, I got my ass kicked royally by some...guy." She snorts softly. The nekojin leaps to her feet at the request and is half-way to the kitchen before Sun comments about wings. Tabitha just leans her head over the side of the freezer door as she retrieves the frozen disk. "...you had wings?" She closes the freezer and peers over the counter towards the living room. "Jeeze, that musta hurt!" After the sounds of the packaging being ripped off can be heard, the girl makes her way back flipping a chair from the table around backwards to sit on in the process. "I sometimes yank my tail, but not enough ta actually make it fall off!" She winces at the thought despite the mentioned limb swishing around behind her. "Still have them, just don't have them out." She gingerly raises to her feet, stretching out a little. One finger is held up, and a reptilian claw suddenly forms there. "I'll show you...need to change the bandages, anyhow." That said, she promptly draws the claw down the bandages covering her torso, pulling it off with relative ease. Bright pink blotches show up on her skin, particularly on her left side. After ensuring her clothing is in a proper place, the dragon closes her eyes. Then, with a strange and somewhat sickening sound, wings suddenly sprout and grow from her back, while a tail unfurls from her rear end. The scales are pale and resemble a late evening sky, where there is still a miniscule amount of light in the sky but the stars are out. Unfortunately, there are partially healed singes all over her scales, but her left wing is rather mangled, a good portion of the tip missing, while the membranes are tattered. Looks like she's healing, though, and she might not even need the bandages soon enough. Tabitha watches mesmerized by the show. She even claps a little when it seems to be over, at least until the oven beeps and she jumps up again to throw the pizza in. "Sorry, had to wait for it to heat up." Returning to her chair between the kitchen and the couch, the girl stares hypnotically at the star pattern. Singed or not, "They're pretty! You should leave those out more often!" The dragoness keeps her wings partially extended for a moment, before gingerly closing them again. "I do admit to liking the look of them. It's more comfortable to keep them out while I heal, but then I keep bumping things, and that is not so comfortable." Her tail coils overs the couch in serpentine movements, the tip coming to rest against the ground. "Thank you, though. I appreciate the company." She rubs at her forehead, watching Tabitha thoughtfully. Rubbing the back of her neck, Tabitha grins while averting her eyes to the ground. "Heh... It's a little weird hanging out with someone an' it's not at the UR or somethin'." She then folds her arms on the top of the backwards chair and rests her head on them. "...but it's nice, I guess." Her tail continues to swish behind her happily. Glancing at darkening sky through the windows behind Sun, the girl hums quietly to herself. "Y'know, I JUST realized how dumb it is that I keep going there while I'm supposed ta be hiding...." The dragoness smiles, "Yeah, a little out of the norm, not hanging out in the Usual or at work." Sun leans back, careful not to bump her wings on anything in the process. "And it is probably a very good idea for you to hang out somewhere that is not in public..." She chuckles softly, closing her eyes for a moment. "Sorry I'm not up to my normal speed, it's been...a very long day." She smiles, though. "Obviously." Tabitha giggles slightly as the smell of the food in the oven drifts in from the kitchen. "Obviously, yeah." The girl scratches an ear, pondering aloud, "Maybe I just need an awesome disguise?" With a shrug she pushes her arms out straight and arches her back, trying to stretch it. "An' also I can shush up if ya like. I'm only kinda chattering on because I feel like I need ta." With a slight pop she relaxes and curls up against the backrest of the chair again. "I always just roamed the streets or hid out in th' ticket booth at the arena when I wasn't doin' something." Tabitha frowns to herself. "I guess I'm glad I don't own much, anyone could just walk in there while I'm avoidin' it." Sniffing at the air, Sun smiles faintly. Smells good. "Well, it's not that difficult to obtain hair dye, and we could change up your clothes...might be able to find some colored contacts, if you like?" She tips her head toward Tabitha, hugging her knees to her chest all the while. "And once I'm feeling a bit better, I'll see if I can get your stuff for you." She idly pokes at the scales of her tail, apparently just as fascinated as Tabby is. The nekojin shrugs, "Naaah. Nothin' really important there like I said. Some cans of food an' a blanket for when it got cold. I only went there to sleep, and kept me close ta old horn-head when he needed somethin'." She grins at her poor joke like she was the first to ever make it. Slowly her smile fades as a single eyebrow raises. "Dammit. See now I gotta question everythin'. Was I sleepin' like a hobo because I was wantin' ta be more like Samantha, or did he just make me think that so I could be at his beck an' call?" The dragoness smiles, nodding in response to the nekojin. "Yeah, sounds like you don't really need it here. I cook a lot, and while I generally eat a lot, there's usually more than enough to go around. And I have a surplus of blankets. But I'll definitely get you some hair dye for the purpose of disguise." She smiles charmingly as Tabby states that she has to question everything...but then, her face pales as Samantha is mentioned. For a long moment, she goes quiet, blue eyes upon the ground as thoughts etch their way onto her face, pulling her eyebrows and the corners of her mouth down in a thoughtfully melancholy expression. After the long silence, she turns her eyes up to Tabitha, her apparently conflicting thoughts still carved into her face. "I -- I think I might know a bit about your backstory..." Between the memories she got from Oblivion (none of which include Tabitha), and what Johnny's said about the past (and it matching up with her memories), she's put a few theories together. "I think...I don't think Diablo made you, to start with... Tabitha manages to miss most of Sun's expressions due to getting up to check on the food and pull it out of the oven. She's about to comment about the hair dye when the dragoness starts talking again. "Oh yeah?!" She nearly burns herself on the pizza, dropping it on the stove distractedly. "Gyah, um. You mean 'made' like 'he made me do it' right? 'Cause otherwise that's a scary thought." The girl shudders briefly. "Besides thanks ta Xue I know there was stuff that happened before I was raised by fake-mom." She frowns again remembering the scene with her new mental room-mates standing around as her body murdered her grandmother. "I don't remember much, but with what I do remember that's probably a good thing."
There's a long pause before Tabitha speaks again, but it's only because she's bringing slices of pizza on plates into the living room. Actually seeing Sun looking all nervous with her head down makes the girl laugh. "Oh come on. Now yer goin' too far." She puts the two plates on the coffee table and goes to retrieve the chair she's been sitting on and pull it over. "Only way you'd know my grandmother is if you were fake-Mom and we already established that's impossible." Finally sitting down again, she retrieves a plate and starts to munch before pausing, "Although... Johnny coulda been the name of that demon that rap-uh..." The girl shifts uncomfortably, "That Samantha was supposed to have killed." The dragoness shakes her head. "After Sam was gone, Johnny and I made you." She neglects to mention that Tabitha started out as a barstool. "Johnny never raped Sam. Sam and I, we...I loved her. We loved each other, very much, until someone killed her." She pauses. "We made you to be like her. That's why you look so...SO much like her. You even talk like her..." She frowns. "Sorry, I'm sure you don't like hearing about this stuff...maybe Oblivion just made me insane, or something." She rubs at her forehead, shaking her head slowly. The girl sits down the plate and leaps to her feet, knocking the chair backwards in the process. "Nuh-uh. No. That's not funny!" Her own memories of these events are currently locked away much like they were for Sun. "I-if that was true you'd have to ACTUALLY be my mother. Sh-she told me, Samantha went out in tha wastelands an' she was paid ta protect a demon an' that's how she found th' gateway ta hell. Th-the demon raped her an' she killed him." The girl pulls out the Dread Dagger she carries and nearly throws it on the table before Sun. It's etched handle and picture of Happy Noodle Boy are unmistakably Johnny's. "THAT's where I came from. Sun sh-she raised me." The girl pauses as her words click in her mind and suddenly her hands are being held to the sides of her head. "...but that was fake-Mom who said..." Tabitha tries to step backwards and tumbles over the chair, hitting the ground rather hard and forcing tears to start flowing from her eyes. "She didn't look like you, " is about all she can manage to say. The dragoness blinks a few times at the dagger. "That's Johnny's dagger...or it was." She frowns. "Sam was friends with Johnny...he got pissed off when I still didn't remember her. He really cared about her..." She frowns. "And Johnny would never rape someone. I know him well enough to know that he wouldn't do that. I can't see him EVER doing that. I mean, he doesn't even like to TOUCH people, let alone put his genitals anywhere near theirs." As Tabby falls, Sun raises, moving over to Tabitha instantanously, cushioning her fall with slightly spread wings, like some kind of space angel dragon thing. Concern etches over her face, now. "If any of it's true, I mean to take care of you, and help you out any way that I can." Now, if she could only find her other daughter...the one she DOES remember, the family might be complete. Or something. Tabitha's vision blurs and the room goes dark briefly but feeling Sun's wings she fights the urge to give up and the girl pushes herself onto her knees. "I-I'm fine. Yer hurt worse than I coulda been from fallin'." She won't admit that she didn't want to push away, but she had to. Shaking her head she kicks herself to the side, pulling her knees up so she can face Sun on the floor. "You... you... How can you be so sure? Did you just lie ta me about not knowing me? An' why all the stupid fake memories? What's so bad about knowing who you where?" The girl buries her head in her knees as the walls of her mind feel like they're falling apart. With a frown, Sun folds her wings against her back. "I'm fine. I heal fast. In a few days, you probably won't even be able to tell I was hurt in the first place." She listens, frowning for a time, before shaking her head. "I didn't lie. I had no memories...none...until I met Oblivion this afternoon. I -- I don't even entirely remember you, but things that Johnny has said makes sense with my memories..." She rubs at her forehead. "I don't know why you'd have fake memories...or why I was so bad to know. I went home for a while, after my other daughter disappeared...spent time with my family there..." The girl raises her head just enough to look at Sun with the red, bloodshot eyes she now has. She watches a moment, sniffling quietly. She just can't seem to process how she should react. In rapid succession she's had to come to grips with her life being a lie, her mind being shattered into at least three other personalities, and now the only person she thought she could trust besides Xue turns out to actually be the person she called her mother. For a moment the world slows down, and then stops. All she wants to do is run away but she can't bring herself to move. As if to make it worse the other versions of herself are sitting all around her. Tabby reaches over and steals her food. "You c'n have it... I cant eat anymore." The young girl grins and starts devouring it. Of course Sun will see none of this. It's all happening in Tabitha's mind, but that doesn't stop the words from coming out of her mouth anyways. In fact, all of their voices are coming out of her mouth now as she has a conversation with herselves. "Sure, sure. 'Sis here has a nervous breakdown and you start shoving your face." The voice is clearly not Tabitha's, it's older somehow. More mature. "But I'm HUNGRY!" squeaks the voice of a child. Tabitha buries her head again, speaking for herself. "I wish you'd all just go away..." Sun blinks a few times, brows raising as Tabitha begins to talk to herself. "...Tabitha? Are you okay?" Gingerly, the dragoness reaches out one hand to gently touch Tabby's shoulder. "I'm here for you. Just take a deep breath and think of the happiest thing you can. Visualize it, okay? Focus on it, and ignore the others in there, okay?" She frowns quietly. "MAKE them go away...don't give them a choice in the matter." Tabitha's head rolls up and despite the tears staining her face, her expression changes to one of rage and that older voice comes out of her lips, "Oh FUCK YOU Sun-chan, or Sunny, or whatever fucking name you're fucking calling yourself these days! We're not like NNY's fucking figments. Every last one of us has the right ta fucking be here just as much as Missy Breakdown here." The girl shoves Sun's hand away as she rants. She tries to get up, but of course Tabitha won't let her. "OH FUCK YOU! Why are we puttin' up with this bullshit!?" Tabitha's hands go up over her ears as the child's voice screams out, "STOP IT!! STOP IIIIT!!!" The girl's pupils dilate as she begins to pant loudly. The elder voice barely manages to say, "FUCK! Too much!" She looks at Sun with eyes full of terror. "BITCH, KNOCK US OUT! RIGHT NOW BEFORE 'IT' WAKES UP!!" Well that's not ominous, is it? The dragoness looks utterly confused by all of this, for a moment a look akin to a deer in the headlights passing over her features. She doesn't really say much, until she's asked to knock out the girl. "What? I...what?" She blinks a few times, eyes widening. Swallowing, she shakes her head. "No, I can't do that to you...her..." She flares her wings slightly, watching the girl wearily. "I won't hurt you." The girl's body lurches up into the air, the dagger sliding off the table and into her grasp. Her body instantly goes black until she's nothing more than a living shadow. Red orbs open in place of her eyes and she looks down at Sun as two rows of razor-sharp teeth expose themselves from her mouth opening into a sadistic smile. "ThAt'S CuTe... ShE DOeSn'T WanT to HuRt Usss..." Her words roll off her tongue with the smell of decomposing flesh. The beast reaches up, grabbing it's jaw with her free hand and yanks it free of her skull sending a spray of blackness into the air like blood. The nightmare begins to cackle a deep, dark laugh that feels more like it belongs in the pits of Hell than Sun's living room. A blackened tongue rolls out of where the mouth should be in this featureless shadow and it licks it's upper teeth gleefully. Giving barely enough time to blink, the thing is suddenly behind the dragoness, lifting her up from the ground by her shoulders. The former nekojin's hands now long talons. Somehow it speaks in that same twisted voice it used before, "...bUt We SHaLL hURt HeR... We ArE STilL HUnGRY..." Oh. Oh, shit. Okay. Well then. That is...terrifying. Extremely terrifying. Especially terrifying now that the dragoness is being lifted from the ground by her shoulders. Unfortunately, that puts the Not-Tabitha with those obnoxious extra appendages between her and Sun. Ignoring the pain this action causes, Sun snaps her wings open, the claws on the tips of her good wings aimed for the creatures chest and face, while her tail snaps at the creature; while the claws will cause damage, Sun is only aiming to knock the shadow beast away from her... And assuming she is successful, she promptly brings time to a halt around her, her main intent to freeze the beast...thing. The claws do damage all right, they sever her hands off at the wrists. As she moves away the beast's shape cracks in half vertically, her stomach and chest open up into another gaping maw full of razor sharp teeth that snap once before... Everything stops. Even with time frozen temporarily the creature is still moving from the sheer amount of power and energy it's burning off with every second it exists, but it's slow. Very slow. The effect is much like watching syrup flow from a bottle. Her form keeps trying to change, to shift, but it's locked into the shape of the girl and constantly flows back to it. Depending on how long Sun tries to keep it in this state, the beast screams. After only about three minutes it doubles back onto itself revealing Tabitha holding the dagger out before her in one arm and the other still frozen where she had grabbed Sun. Her clothes however are completely shredded and large bruises appear everywhere the beast had changed forms. When time restores her eyes roll up into her head and the nearly naked girl collapses onto the floor unconscious... | |
Enable comment auto-refresher