cancry | sixth loop

...

[He frowned slightly, putting a hand on Sword's shoulder in an attempt to make sure he stood down. Regardless of how truthful this was, they needed to tread carefully.]

[So instead, he tilted his head as if listening carefully and spoke in a calmer tone like he was trying to talk a cat out of a tree.]

Take a breath and sit down if you must. Do you know how long the looping has been going for?

[Veil sits down first, and tries her best to give off a you should all sit down too vibe, a process that consists mostly of thinking very hard about wanting everyone to sit.

She really feels bad about all this.]

Do you really expect us to--

[Sword growls, very clearly annoyed, but he knows when he's about to make this worse so he just. Shuts up and moves to lean against the door so the nicer people can maybe handle this for a moment.]

[Etoile will take the seat next to Miss President, moving to put a hand on her shoulder if she'll let her.]

I believe you. We're trying to figure out what's going on, too. Please talk to us. We really do want to help.

[ Miss President doesn't so much sit down as she does collapse into the chair, more or less doubled up on herself and staring down at her hands. She barely reacts to Etoile's touch – but eventually, she starts to talk. ]

It's been going on... much, much longer than I remember, I think... when I first woke up, I just had the feeling that things had already looped around so many times before... but at first, I thought I was just dreaming or misremembering things...

[On the other side of Miss President, Veil moves to take one of your hands.]

How much time was passing in each loop then?

... It's hard to remember, but...

I think it was three years. Our entire high school life...

[Sword's not saying anything, just watching Miss President for now. Is she lying? Is she hiding anything?]

I see...and do you remember anything that might have set it off? Think carefully, potentially regarding the gymnasium--an incident at a graduation, perhaps?

[ There's somethings she's clearly not eager to talk about but she's not lying. ]

... I don't know when it started. It'd already been going for such a long time when I woke up. Th... The Student Council President was the only other person who knew, but I don't remember... whether she ever admitted to it.

I just remember that... she cried. Just before it all ended... she cried and told me she was sorry. A–and after that...

[ A huge shudder goes through Miss President and she almost doubles up where she's sat. ]

Your friend R, right...

[Etoile's not being accusatory; it's more like she's thinking out loud.]

...after that, she wasn't herself anymore? Something like that?

[ Miss President shakes her head. ]

S... stop it... I don't want to talk about that...! W–why are you asking so many questions...?

[ It seems that getting her to talk is going to be difficult.

...

But...

Doesn't it feel like you might be able to help her some other way? It's faint, and though you've never felt it or used it before...

An oddly familiar power suddenly starts to stir somewhere deep in the Executors' hearts. ]

We-..

[Phoenix paused, looking briefly startled as he pressed a hand to his chest. What...was that? Why did it feel almost familiar? His free hand opened and closed as if expecting to find a dagger's hilt manifesting from thin air. Why?]

[He closed his eyes for as much as it didn't much matter, focusing on that faint sensation, trying to take hold of it and pull hard enough to find out what it might do.]

[Veil takes Miss President's hand with both of hers, and...

And... and does what? She has even less of a grasp of what this power might be than Phoenix. Maybe she'll just... focus very hard?

This is probably weird and disconcerting from poor Miss President's point of view.]

[Okay, what the fuck? What the fuck. This feels weird, and yet familiar and...]

Shit. Is she one of us? Did we just wake her up?

If we did, then that's a good thing, right?

[what the fuck is exactly right, sword]

[ It's not quite the same as an awakening. Rather, for those of you who've encountered those memory carrying butterflies then this will seem rather familiar. Something about Miss President's distress resonates with this new power inside you and then all at once...

It starts to come unravelled. ]

Graduation comes in a flurry of colour, noise and tears. Three years of youth spent with three girls met entirely by chance, three years of hard work on the student council, three years older and wiser. The then-vice-president of the student council sits with her friends in the courtyard, sharing a quiet moment as the time they've shared comes to a close.

"I just wish it could go on forever..." says the Vice President, a warm breeze blowing her white hair back and forth.

Laying by her side in the grass, her dark hair spread out around her face, the Student Council President closes her eyes. "Me too. I wish I could spend these three years with you again."

Pause. Rewind. Play.

Three years of hard work. Three years of youth. Tears and words exchanged at graduation like promises. "I wish I could spend another three years with you."

Pause. Rewind. Play.

Deja vu. Strange dreams. "Just three more years."

Pause. Rewind. Play.

How many years has it been? How many times has the Student Council President whispered that promise to her at graduation?

"Just three more..."

Pause. Rewind. Play.

"Just..."

She can't keep track of where and when anymore. She doesn't know which loops are which, can't tell what things have happened and what things are meant to happen. She thinks... maybe that's fine. This is what she'd wanted. To spend forever, going over those three years she loved so much.

Pause. Rewind. Play.

"Are you doing this?" she asks the Student Council President during one loop. She can't remember which one. She remembers her stricken expression and the way she'd frozen in place like a deer in headlights. In all the loops, she never asks the question again.

Maybe she should have done. Maybe then, things wouldn't have...

Pause. Rewind. Play.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." The Student Council President cries into her shoulder. "I can't do it anymore. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm–"

Pause. Rewind. Play.

Graduation seems to come faster than she remembers it. The Student Council President acts strangely this year, sleepwalking through the years she had once loved so much. Can love poison you like hate does, when you feel it strongly enough?

They call the Student Council President to the stage to give her graduation speech. She's given it so many times that the Vice President has it memorized by heart, now. But for some reason, when she approaches the stage, she seems to be shaking with nerves.

From her seat in the crowd, the Vice President can't see her face, but she can tell something is wrong when the President misses her cue to speak. The Principal watches her for a moment before stepping in and setting a hand on her back.

"Regret, dear, is something–"

The rest of her words are lost in the titanic maw that splits open the Student Council President's head. Bright and shining, pneuma sprays through the air in a graceful arc. Rows upon rows of teeth open further and further down her throat until the Student Council President isn't the Student Council President any longer.

The Executors know a Revenant when they see one, of course. But to the students of Superbia, all they see is a monster. Pneuma coats its teeth, splurting out between its jaws as it consumes the Principal and its throat swelling grotesquely with each swallow. By the time it's done, the stage is pained in black and purple and the room is silent as a tomb. It lets out a horrible gurgling noise, so unlike the soft, sweet voice of the Student Council President and turns its hungry and yet still somehow terribly aware eyes to the student body sat frozen in their seats.

Someone splits the deadly quiet with a scream and the Vice President realizes, as if from a distance, that the one screaming is her.

[ . . .

When all of you come back to yourselves, no time at all has passed, impossible as it seems. The only change is that Miss President is now slumped at her table, eyes shut fast, as if she passed out the moment... all that triggered. Against all odds, she seems to be sleeping peacefully... the most peacefully she's slept in a very long time, you feel.

That strange new power is still resonating – you could continue to dive deeper, if you wish... but uh, maybe after five minutes and a glass of water. That was a lot! ]

[…All things considered, he’d rather not have been able to see any of it. A dozen questions were answered, and a hundred more brought up.]

Did anyone-…are all of you alright?

Phoenix, that--that butterfly.

[Sword is still leaning against the wall, but he's got a hand pressed to his heart because what the fuck.]

Was it her's?

[If any of the Executors present don't understand the difference between "unresponsive" and "not responding," now's their chance to find out. Veil is unresponsive for a moment, sitting stunned at what she's just witnessed. Then she snaps to reality, and doesn't respond to Phoenix as she instead immediately moves to check on Miss President and make sure she's still alive.

~~She wasn't alive to begin with, but you know what I mean.~~]

I’m okay. I think. I’m going to go get her some water for when she wakes up. Veil, please keep an eye on her till I get back? I will be as quick as I can. Thanks.

[And with that, as shaky as her voice is, she’s running to the cafeteria to get a bottle of water.]

I-…I don’t know. It’s probable—very likely, but I can’t yet say with full certainty.

…Where is she? I don’t hear her.

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1/???

cw: body horror, pseudo cannibalism, gore

done

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