ITP: Consolidation.

[fracta_anima]

OOC: So we don't wind up spamming the Network Comm and because some people just want to write: comment here to post your nightmares/punishment as you have written them. Please specify if it's a nightmare or a punishment in the subject line.

If it's a punishment, please also put in the subject line if it's viewable and on what day(s).

Remember to add your character's tag to the post.

Thanks guys!

--Random

Comments

Punishment - Starting Day 6, evening;

[pitiedthefool]

...Inaba. He was at the Junes in Inaba and all of his friends were there, gathered around the usual table. Did this mean that the nightmare was it all over? Had they all returned home?

No, logic dictates. If that were the case, you would be on the train ride home.

"I wonder if Senpai's alright," Rise spoke up first, and he opened his mouth to say something, tell them that he's right there behind her when he realized it. No sound was coming from his mouth. His eyes widen in shock, and he tried again. and again. And again. Still no sound. He tried to reach out to her, just to touch her and the others as they began discussing what they would each do now that everything was over... but he felt the painful zap of an invisible barrier, as though his soul was being blocked from theirs.

Was this because of him turning his back on the fight, letting the other live only to be almost literally stabbed in the back?

Everyone, please... hear me...! But no matter how hard he pleaded, screamed at the top of his lungs, there was no answer. Nothing but they group of friends drifting apart as afternoon gave way to evening. It was almost as if he wasn't there, did not exist at all.

Yet there he was, standing at the now vacant table before sinking into his usual seat and buying his head in his hands. No one could hear him, no one could see him. Was he truly a wandering soul in this world...? He couldn't even begin to dwell on the thought as night fell around him, as did the rain. Yu sat outside in it for well over an hour, not caring if he'd get sick or not - could a ghost even get sick? - as he thought of what he could do before he began wandering the town. No one could see him, see the rain fall down upon him. Not even Izanami, who had seen through his barriers and to the overwhelming loneliness in his heart, seemed to notice as she stood there in her human guise and stared up at the sky with a smirk crossing her lips.

What was even going on, anymore?

Three "days" go by as though they were a blur, and he watched as his friends went on with their daily lives. Rise had already left to return to the entertainment industry, Teddie returned to the TV world, and the others had school now. They all seemed close, regardless.

"Huh, that's odd," he once heard Yosuke mention as he and Chie walked to school.

"Hm? What's odd?"

"Yu hasn't answered any of the messages I left him..."

Because I'm RIGHT HERE. His heart cried out, begging the first bond he'd ever made in his seventeen years of life outside of his family to hear his voice. Just once but to no avail. His shoulders are shaking, and the rain was beginning to relent. Why... Why can you not hear me? Yosuke... Chie... Everyone...

...The fog began to roll in, almost as though brought about by how obscured his presence was to them. No one noticed the body that hung up on the telephone pole just outside the school except him, and he screamed even louder because he recognized it.

Teddie-!

Yet no sound fell on their deafened ears, and he fell to his knees as he saw the second form... was Rise. She hadn't even made it to the station...

His friends had unknowingly left him behind, even as the police came to collect the two bodies. Even his uncle looked like he was trying not to let his emotions get the better of him as he placed the sheet over Rise's and then Teddie's faces. Meanwhile Yu couldn't move, couldn't leave their sides. They couldn't hear his sobs, couldn't see him breaking down in tears as the fog grew even thicker, couldn't feel as he tried and tried... just to lay a hand on them one more time.

And it kept repeating...

One by one, they vanished into the fog and he couldn't do a damned thing to stop it. He understood now how Namatame had felt, being unable to stop the deaths of the first two victims. The pain he'd felt when he lost his lover, and then the girl who's discovered her body... how Yosuke felt when he'd agreed to help him get back into the TV. He knew it too well, because he saw it happen. Over and over again to those he loved like family. Deep down he knew it was only a nightmare, but it doesn't stop... never relented...

Then his entire world was gone, consumed by the fog as he floated there and static began crawling up his fingers, his toes, his hands, his feet, his arms, his legs... Yu had no more tears to shed as he barely existed there with no one to save him this time, no sweet release as his entire body screamed in pain though he felt nothing. But then, that dull ache was the worst of all.

Is this what would have happened had I not...

The young man stopped in his tracks,standing/floating there in the fog alone having wandered even though every step became painful. Nothing made a sound, not even his footsteps or his collapse.

Enough... I- I've had enough.

The feed ended there as his body flickered in and out of sight in both fog and TV snow...