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 Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2025 9:32 pm
This was not the first time Tianyi had met the handsome Senshi with long blonde hair. They seemed to keep running into each other--and in truth, Tianyi was glad to see him. The last time, he'd intervened with that Captain, the one with the mace that Tianyi had definitely been thoroughly outmatched by, and Tianyi was fairly certain he owed him thanks for that.
"Hello there!" He waved, as he jogged over. Probably he sohuldn't be so happy to see a member of the Negaverse, but--well--
Most of the ones he'd met had been kind to him. He did sort of hope that would continue.
"It's so good to see you again, I really do owe you a thank you for...I...." He paused, eyes drawn briefly to something other than Ilmari. Namely, a pair of dice by Ilmari's foot. "Are those yours?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 7:53 pm
After walking with Tianyi, the last time they’d run into each other, Ilmari had wound up feeling more than a little bit conflicted. On getting home, part of him had wanted to talk to Jayce about it. Another part of him had thoroughly considered getting advice from Albite or Miss Hestia. Like, literally anyone whom Ilmari could justify seeing as an older sibling or a mentor sort of figure, which he distinctly lacked in every other area of his life. Whomst was Baz Lemarchand supposed to ask about an issue like this, exactly? He was the eldest of his siblings. Was he supposed to ask his barely eighteen-year-old sister? Or Hawthorn, who wasn’t even five yet?
(……There were always his parents, and on some level, Baz realized that. Parents were meant to be a helpful source of guidance about Boy Problems, and he’d gotten luckier than a lot of people his age about having parents who loved him unconditionally, so they’d understand about Boy Problems and wouldn’t judge him. But also……Baz’s parents had been acting kinda weird lately, mother-henning him and visiting the townhouse more often than usual, and fussing over Baz and his siblings more than usual tended to mean that something was going on at work? Like, other issues weren’t quite as within their control as usual, so they looked for problems with their kids to help with so they didn’t feel totally powerless? So probably it was better for Baz to avoid adding any extra burdens to his dads’ and his moms’ shoulders.
Anyway, it wasn’t as though he could just explain the magical aspect of things with Tianyi to them. Not unless he wanted to bring them into the Negaverse more formally—oh please god no, absolutely ******** NOT an option—so any help he could’ve gotten would’ve been incomplete and insufficient, in the end.)
Despite his conflicted emotions about the little space senshi in the purple twintails, Ilmari turned toward the familiar voice when he heard it. Cheeks flushing pink, Ilmari raised one hand for a shy little wave—which was distinctly not how he usually conducted himself with Boys. Most of the time, he hardly needed to try to be seductive. He usually did try, and especially made an effort once he made it to the other guy’s place (or got him back to the townhouse), but he didn’t need to try. Yet, with Tianyi coming over closer and being so cute, Ilmari felt like it was an incredible effort on his part to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth.
What ultimately helped him do that was nothing pleasant: the dice by his feet got him to sigh.
“I mean, I wouldn’t call them mine,” he said. “But I’ve seen dice like that twice before. And I don’t know what they’ll do if we ignore them, but I……sort of don’t trust them.” He gave Tianyi a long, tired look. “……Have you played the game these things inflict on people before? It’s……distinctly unpleasant? But we can try to help each other through it, at least?”
While Ilmari didn’t treasure the idea, he was ready to pick up one of the dice for himself, if Tianyi didn’t mind trying to help each other with it.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 3:14 pm
It did perk Tianyi up a little, seeing Ilmari's shy little wave, and the way he didn't quite seem to manage a greeting in return. He had never been the one to get people to do that; Junkai was the one who usually had tongue-tied suitors tripping over their feet about him.
Even if what he finally said wasn't quite so fun as Tianyi might have hoped. He wilted a little, ears dropping, and shook his head.
"I've never seen them before, no, but I would be happy to help you--"
Tianyi only blinked, and suddenly he was somewhere else. Just him and one shiny little die, which he picked up, turning around in the strange space and looking for Ilmari.
"Ilmari? Are you here?" Finding himself suddenly alone, after Ilmari's warning about "distinctly unpleasant" games, was not exactly reassuring. And while he wasn't exactly eager to have Ilmari trapped somewhere potentially dangerous....he would feel a little less afraid if Ilmari were with him, he was sure.
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Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 3:15 pm
Quote: Space 5: A dog barks, fierce and frightening. You can hear its growl and the hackles stand up on the back of your neck. You can practically feel spittle on you. It’s close. And it’s big. And it’s angry. If this beastly dog could reach you, no doubt it would try to tear you to shreds.
With a sigh, Ilmari looked out at the golden gameboard that stretched ahead of them. “I did this by myself last year, and one of my superiors made it a team-building exercise this year,” he explained, eliding the fact that technically, two of his superiors had done that. As far as the Negaverse authorities were aware, he perfectly respected General Borax. Didn’t ignore him and his contributions to things in favor of prioritizing Miss Eternal Hestia. In the privacy of his own mind and this conversation with Tianyi, though? There was something safe in pretending that Hestia had been the only one who’d had the idea.
“So, we have the dice and roll them, right? Then, we move ahead that number of spaces. Try to linger too long anywhere, and there’s, like? This invisible magical force that pushes you ahead?” Gesturing at the exit, Ilmari added on, “But it’s not just an easy path over there. There will be hazards in the squares. It’s hard to predict what they’ll be. They get more intense toward the end of things. But……we’ve got each other. And you clearly know how to handle yourself.”
The intel database didn’t have much in the way of knowledge about the mysterious space senshi—at least not that Ilmari had seen—but one entry Ilmari had seen had mentioned one of them knowing a Negaverse senshi in a past life or something like that? If the same timeline held true for Tianyi, then he was probably a lot older than he looked, and you did not, Ilmari figured, survive that long without learning how to handle yourself.…… He probably had some kind of duty, when they got out of here, to write about Tianyi for the database, but, like? Would people think Ilmari was harboring untoward sympathies, if he did that? Would he be suspected of treason against the Negaverse for simply describing Tianyi accurately?
Everything with Team Faustite was such a mess right now, and how much did the other General-Sovereigns know about that? Would all of them be subjected to enhanced scrutiny because they were collectively sort of a hot mess right now and Faustite had disappeared from the Negaverse without a trace for a while, and then Albite had been setting dumpsters on fire to try and bring him home, and now, Faustite existed again, but he was different, and like, a Captain??? Instead of a General-King? Maybe? Would the other General-Sovereigns hold everyone on their team to account for that, and would that mean that Ilmari would make himself look suspicious by telling the database about how Tianyi was kind, and sweet, and he didn’t seem overly hostile to people other than a Captain who’d attacked him first, and was Ilmari even making sense right now?
As he let the die fall from his hand, he realized that, no, he was not making sense right now.
…………That was probably fine. He hoped.
“So, looks like I’m heading for space five,” he said, crouching down to pick his die back up. He gave Tianyi a little smile, shaky as it was. “See you out on the board.”
Space five, Ilmari soon found, was better than space number one and its haunting laughter.
Granted, the growling and the looming presence of a Big Dog—one that Ilmari couldn’t see, but could definitely feel—weren’t much better. But……on the other hand, if he got torn to shreds by a big, ******** up dog, at least he couldn’t get accused of treason for telling the truth, or called into a General-Sovereign’s office to explain why he was saying such nice things about an Order senshi or……or, like………like, WHATEVER would happen to him, if anything.
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Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-6)
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 4:10 pm
Quote: Space 4: Something smells rotten. You can’t see very far into the darkness, but if you squint closely a dark form seems to be dragging itself along the ground. Sometimes you see a pale hand almost close enough to grab you–or, maybe something does grab you. It’s cold, and frightening, and it’s trying to drag you out of bounds.
Whatever was lurking here--he doubted it was anything close to the worst thing he'd experienced.
Ilmari's explanation confirmed that. If the Negaverse was using it as a training facility...probably it couldn't be nearly as bad as Tianyi was afraid of. No one would put trainees through anything too horrible--scary, maybe, and dangerous, but not....well. He would be fine, he was certain, whatever fears might lurk on these dark squares.
"Okay," he said, nodding. "That doesn't sound all that bad. And...knowing someone else is here will make it a lot easier." He didn't mean to look fond, when he looked over at Ilmari, but he did, expression softening as he prepared to roll his die.
"Good luck," he said, tossing it and starting on his way. It was dark, certainly, but it didn't seem all that bad....until he landed on his space.
Immediately, the scent of rot assaulted his nose, and he froze.
He hadn't really seen much of the death he'd known had taken place on his world. And yet, this charnel-house smell, and the sound of something moving in the dark...
There were many dead who might want to haunt him. Tianyi was not eager to stick around and see if this one was one of them.
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Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 4:24 pm
Quote: Space 10: A swampy smell fills the air. You take a step, and you seem to sink into it. Mud creeps over your feet, and you sink rapidly. Ankle deep, knee deep. Whether or not you squirm and fight against it, you are sinking. The mud is crushing and painful, and if you sink too deep it steals the breath from your lungs. There’s nothing to grab onto; you have to roll your dice quickly before that too gets sucked into the muddy quicksand.
Instead, Tianyi landed a space shy of Ilmari’s. And whatever had found him in there, he looked somewhat worse for wear.
“Hey, it’ll be alright,” Ilmari told him, trying to project a level of certainty that Ilmari honestly didn’t feel. Or at least, he felt it about Tianyi, sure. But for himself, Ilmari……didn’t really know. Getting to be anything remotely resembling alright felt like one of the many things he wanted but knew he didn’t entirely deserve. Not yet, anyway. Not until he improved himself enough to merit such a nice thing in his life. “Whatever found you, it—these early spaces are more like tricks of the mind. And when we get to the more dangerous ones, you do know how to handle yourself.”
Whether or not that was true of Ilmari as well, he didn’t have time to ponder.
The die sat on the ground, showing him another five, and right as he crouched down to pick it up, Ilmari felt the invisible force shoving him forward. Impatient ******** magic nonsense. How very rude.
Getting into the space where he was meant to land didn’t help, though.
The smell that assaulted his senses made Ilmari feel like he was going to be sick (and that idea, in turn, made him want to scream, and throw things, or maybe take somebody’s starseed just to make Tianyi boss him around into putting it back because ewwwww, gross and messy, more power to the Friends Like These of Baz’s online who could handle such things because Ilmari did not understand how anybody had the fortitude to handle anything like that, even if they did it willingly). Watching the mud creeping up over his feet, Ilmari felt his stomach lurch. Briefly, he thought he might actually be sick—but at least he managed not to be. Not yet.
Hopefully, the rest of the gameboard wouldn’t push him over the edge.
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Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
6
Total: 6 (1-6)
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2025 10:38 pm
Quote: Space 10: A swampy smell fills the air. You take a step, and you seem to sink into it. Mud creeps over your feet, and you sink rapidly. Ankle deep, knee deep. Whether or not you squirm and fight against it, you are sinking. The mud is crushing and painful, and if you sink too deep it steals the breath from your lungs. There’s nothing to grab onto; you have to roll your dice quickly before that too gets sucked into the muddy quicksand.
"Right. Right, it's not real, it..." He glanced back in the dark, and took a shaky breath. "And even if it were, it's not...." It couldn't be the people he was afraid of seeing. How would their spirits even have gotten summoned here, to this place? Much less their bodies, a thousand years rotted (or so Tianyi hoped)?
At least his die came up a six, which had him catching up with Ilmari. And yes,t hey were in an awful, stinking swamp, which was especially unfortunate with his open toed shoes. But they were in an awful, stinking swamp together.
He reached out, offering a hand.
"We can pull each other through. Ugh, I'm so glad we're powered up, I'd never get this stink out of normal clothes, but fukus wash themselves." He laughed, a little. "So it's gross, but we'll be okay, yeah?"
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Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 12:51 am
Quote: Space 11: You hear a frantic flapping above you, but that’s all the warning you get before a hoard of bats descend. They scratch and slap and screech, but you avoid getting bitten. For now. You’ve invaded their space and they seem keen to defend it. You can try to fight them, but the only way to escape them is to roll again.
But there was also a hand being held out toward Ilmari.
And, when Ilmari wrapped his own hand around that hand, he found Tianyi’s skin soft. Delicate.
Not that Ilmari’s hands were particularly rough, either. The most that anyone could’ve knocked him for was the ever-so-slight callus that tended to build up on his left index and middle fingers when he worked for too long, holding his drawing pencils or his tablet pen too tightly. Even so, Tianyi’s soft hands made Ilmari feel incredibly rough by comparison.
And maybe that made his cheeks flush pink again, but that didn’t sound like anybody’s business.
Honestly, it didn’t even sound like lmari’s business, and he was the one whose heart had started banging and screaming against the inside of his chest.
“Yeah, you, uh……you’re right,” he said again, and squeezed Tianyi’s hand as he rolled his die.
The result made Ilmari pout. He was prepared to let it stand, though……until he crossed the boundary into the next space and hit a snag.
Looking back, he blinked at Tianyi. Then, down at their hands, still entwined.
“……Oh,” Ilmari let drop out of his mouth like a cartoon anvil. “Right, that………you only roll for yourself. Obviously, like……? Of course I can’t bring you with—”
In any case, he couldn’t keep holding on to Tianyi’s hand much longer. A loud screech swept up behind Ilmari. Something flew into the back of his head. Shoved him forward, and he let go of Tianyi’s hand, trying not to yank him too hard and pull him face-first into the invisible barrier that stood between the spaces. Whatever had flown into him, it jerked and pulled on Ilmari’s hair with a desperate, leathery flapping. Then, zoomed up and away, only to screech again. Hot on the heels of that sound, more screeching noises flared up in the darkness above Ilmari’s head.
Sighing in the way of someone who was already exhausted with whatever had come for him, Ilmari squared up. When the bats descended in greater numbers, he swatted back at them.
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Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-6)
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 2:48 pm
Quote: Space 13: At first, the square is quiet. Nothing seems amiss. It’s unnerving in how safe it seems. But then, it only takes a few seconds before you understand why. It’s just taken a moment for them to get to you. The patter of tiny feet is rapidly approaching. There’s no light to see them, but there’s a reflection in their beady eyes. Rats. Thousands of them. Chittering, frothing in the mouth. These are strangely grotesque, mutated abominations. They’re running at you like they haven’t got a fear in the world–only, hungry. And rage. If they get to you, they’ll eat you alive. The ground is trembling with their weight. You’d better roll quickly if you don’t wind up a meal.
Other people might think it was foolish. That Tianyi was getting close to someone he shouldn't. So many people on Earth seemed to think that Chaos was dangerous--deadly poison that strangled out worlds. But....Ilmari wasn't some distant Chaos entity. He was just a person, who seemed to really like Tianyi, and who had put himself at risk to protect Tianyi from someone on his own side.
People didn't do that for him. The last person who had seen him as worth protecting had died for it, and that had been...different.
None of the men in that villa had ever spared a moment's thought to standing against their fellows for Xiulan's sake.
"See, we made it," he said.
Although he was loathe to move forward, since it meant parting.
"It's okay, we'll catch up with each other again," he said, and he let Ilmari go--though it seemed like whatever was in Ilmari's square was nasty, and Tianyi did not want to leave him to it.
That was the game, unfortunately.
He rolled his own die, and then ran forward, past Ilmari's space and two more, and for a moment, he had time to catch his breath.
"This isn't so bad," he said, prematurely, "are you okay? It sounded like--"
And then they came. Hundreds of little feet. Chittering, squealing.
Tianyi did not know the name of the animal that cascaded towards him, but he knew they looked hungry. And that all he could do was run.
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Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-6)
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 3:16 pm
Quote: Space 14: The ground is sticky. You land on this and immediately dip, as though you’ve stepped on a trampoline. Close inspection reveals that you are standing on an intricately woven web–and your shoes are stuck. And something is skittering just on the horizon.
Anyway, the point was that Ilmari didn’t want to stop spending time with Tianyi, though. Not unless Tianyi like, got sick of him and asked him to go away.
Externally, this conflict spelled itself out in Ilmari watching intently as Tianyi passed through his square, and more so as Tianyi moved past him. Although Ilmari continued making token efforts at batting the creatures above him away, his attention had wandered such that his swats more closely resembled a kitten playing with some string. But the more he watched Tianyi, the more Ilmari wound up pouting.
He was so cute, and petite, and buried under the voluminous fabric of his fuku such that Ilmari couldn’t even ogle him respectfully. ******** unfair. Rude and unfair and crimes by reality against Ilmari specifically and—
WHAM.
One of the bats crashed into the side of his head. Hard enough to sweep him off his feet, which was just………
This Was Fine.
At least Ilmari dropped his die when he fell. He scooped it back up as he pushed himself to his feet. And as he passed through Tianyi’s square en route to his own, Ilmari had a brilliant idea for how to make it like nothing had even happened. On the whole, people loved talking about themselves and feeling listened to, so he just had to—
“So, like, has life on Earth been okay for you?” He pivoted, turning to face Tianyi. From previous experience, Ilmari knew all too well that he couldn’t exactly linger in a space where the game felt he wasn’t meant to be. But……he could walk backwards. Ilmari was very smart and also talented! “I don’t really get the chance to talk to most senshi who come here from space. And like, it’s fair on them? I get it? But like, our world hasn’t been, y’know, super hostile or rude or anything to you, right? It’s just been that one a*****e Captain with the—ahhhh!”
The ground beneath Ilmari shifted as he stepped backwards into his square.
Briefly, as he toppled backwards (fruitlessly flailing his arms in an effort to prevent this), he thought about trampolines. That might’ve been a decent change for once?
When the ground rose up to meet him, it was not a trampoline.
“Eeeugh,” Ilmari let slip as he recognized the material for what it was: spiderwebbing. “No, no, no, thank you. Please don’t roll a one, okay? Whatever spider’s in here, it doesn’t need a chance to come at both of us.”
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Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
6
Total: 6 (1-6)
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 4:33 pm
Quote: Space 19: You’re so close! Almost at the end! But the space you’re standing on shifts and shakes and seems to crumble beneath you. You have to hold on; there’s nowhere to fall but down into the deep abyss. If you manage to hang on for long enough, you find some invisible purchase and can pull yourself back up, but it’s quite the ordeal. Make sure you don’t get cut on falling spaces! The ground restores itself once you roll again.
He did gasp, seeing Ilmari get bowled over, but he seemed to recover fairly quickly, and so Tianyi decided not to ask if he was okay and embarrass him further.
And Ilmari seemed...interested in him. In such a genuine way. Beyond whatever attraction he obviously felt. Maybe that would matter. Maybe it would...mean something.
"It's been lovely," Tianyi said, as he rolled his own die and started across the next steps on the board. "So many people have been so very kind to me--I really like it here!" Liked it here enough that the thought of returning to his own world....it didn't feel right. He didn't want to go back there. Didn't particularly care about saving it, either. But that was....well. He didn't want to dwell on that too much.
He hated passing by Ilmari on his way towards his own space. Enough that he paused. Tried to reach out.
"Maybe I can--ah!" As soon as he lingered, it felt like the place reacted, and he was immediately pushed forward by an invisible force. "I'm sorry, it won't let me stay," he gasped, as he stumbled onto the next square. And kept moving, further down, until he found himself nearly at the end.
"I think...I think I'm almost out!" He called, jubilantly. "I just need to--"
He started to walk forward. Heard an awful cracking sound.
And fell.
He scrambled to get a grip on the edge of the crumbling square, trying to pull himself out and forward.
"The second to last square--it's a trap, the floor is weak!"
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Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-6)
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 7:49 pm
Quote: Space 16: As you step into your square, something cracks. At first, you can’t tell what it is, but as your full weight moves onto the square, the ground shifts beneath you. It’s cold, and it’s ice, and a hole falls underneath you, plunging you into frigid waters. There’s enough floating ice that you should still be able to roll the dice to get out of here, but you have to go quickly–you’re soaked, in chilly water, and something just swam by your feet.
Yet, with determination and dedication, Ilmari got himself together enough to get back on his feet. He had a response ready to go, about being grateful that Tianyi had found his time on Earth so agreeable (which definitely wasn’t something that Ilmari should have found so nice, not when all of the Negaverse’s training materials told them that they needed to get alien influences away from Earth and save their planet………but it still made Ilmari feel somewhat better about everything that Tianyi hadn’t found behaviors like that damn edgelord Captain’s, like, common). Ilmari didn’t get the chance to say what he planned on, though, because not ten seconds after he’d found his own footing, Tianyi fell through the floor of his own space.
“Hang on,” Ilmari called to him, rolling quickly. “I’ll be on my way, I can help, I……” Ilmari frowned down at the result on his die. “Oh, absolutely <********> you.”
After indulging himself in a sigh, he called back to Tianyi, “I’m still trying to come for you! I’m just……rolling like garbage. But you—you can probably get out on your next roll? Hang on and roll and—”
And something heavy crashed into Ilmari’s back, pushing him forward. ******** the invisible force that refused to let anyone get out of playing by its rules. ******** this entire game. All of this was horrible, and Ilmari had more than enough going on in his life right now. Maybe all of it was actually happening to other people but……yes? That was kind of the point of the role Ilmari had enthusiastically taken on within his team? He wanted to help people (at least, the ones whom he cared about personally), and he wanted to be there for them, and everything that was going on with things falling apart during Faustite’s absence but not magically improving upon his return…… None of that was about Ilmari, so he had no reason to be stressed about it, because everything for him personally was going completely fine.
Except for getting closer to the cute outer space boy exit. By virtue of rolling low, Ilmari only managed to move two spaces forward, onto a patch of ice that, while slippery beneath his heels, seemed largely inoffensive. And surprisingly non-dangerous, given the gameboard and its usual treachery. If the only danger was the risk of falling over, then Ilmari would happily take that as a little reprieve from everything else in this horrible place.
“Go ahead without me when you roll,” he called to Tianyi. “I’m—I’m rolling low, but you shouldn’t have to wait while I—”
He cut himself off with an undignified squawk as the ice beneath him broke open, and frozen depths.
What the ********> cracked through everything else Ilmari felt like an icepick through glass. This shouldn’t have happened. Not to him. Maybe to some other a*****e who got stuck in this square but not to Ilmari. Not when he was so good, so diligent, so careful.… He gasped, feeling something in the water swish by his legs. But even that was nowhere near as pressing a matter, in his mind, as the fact that this should not have happened to him, why had it been allowed to happen, he was so careful.…
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Noir Songbird rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
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Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2026 1:31 pm
Quote: Space 20: The end; once you have arrived here you are free to leave. You will see be basked in the glow of a beautiful, opalescent aura that will take you back home. If you arrived with a guest, you can leave without them or choose to stay until they make it to the end as well. When you arrive back in Destiny City, you may choose to keep the six sided die–if nothing else, it’s pretty! Though, it doesn’t seem to have any magical qualities, that might be for the best.
And you had to be fast. Because Tianyi was pretty sure he couldn't hold himself up forever. But he managed to get himself up enough, onto the still-sturdy edge of the square, and threw his die, and honestly, the fact that the ground restored behind him felt a little insulting.
Sure, when he cooperated, it was fine.
"I made it!" He called back, as he got to his feet and took his last step. "So you just have to catch up with me!" He tried to sound optimistic. Waiting a little was fine, as long as they both left.
But that scream.
Tianyi gasped, and started to run, but he found himself colliding with the invisible wall.
"Ilmari!" He pounded on the magical divider, like he might be able to break throguh, and go back, and help-- but it held fast, no matter how hard he pressed. "Ilmari, you have to catch up to me, I'm not leaving without you! I'll stay here and I'll wait for--for as long as it takes!"
He couldn't leave someone behind. He wasn't going to walk away from another person and have to worry that he'd never see them again. Not now. Not like he'd been pulled away from his family, knowing they would all die, knowing that--
He sobbed, a little, hitting the wall again like it would let him through.
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Amor Remanet rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
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Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2026 1:33 pm
Clambering out of the water, Ilmari rolled his die. Based on how things had gone so far, he expected it to come out with a ******** one. Again. Because keeping him stuck in here seemed to be the game’s prerogative: get Ilmari good and isolated, so he couldn’t pay attention to anything but his own pathetic failures and how everything was falling apart and maybe he couldn’t rationally blame himself or justify turning everything wrong with his team into His Fault Somehow but he sure could connect different pieces of the issue to himself and to his own inability to be everything to everyone, and to how much he let himself slip up without any attempt to discipline himself better, and to how his team needed him to do better, they needed him to be better, they needed……
They needed……
They NEEDED,
Looking up from the floor—trying not to think about how tight his ribcage felt around his lungs, and how trying to breathe felt like knives in his chest—Ilmari saw Tianyi’s fuku fluttering behind him as he made his way out, back into the real world. As much as Ilmari could feel relief at the moment, it dripped down the back of his neck just then.
Tianyi had gotten out of here, though, which was the real important thing.
Which, it occurred to Ilmari as he blinked uncomprehendingly down at his die and the five spots that it decided to show him, was a really weird thing to feel and Something Else He Definitely Needed To Avoid Thinking About At All Ever Again In His Entire Life.
At least the gameboard didn’t let him have the time he needed for those thoughts. Whatever invisible hand made it work swept up behind him, shoving Ilmari forward. And he didn’t need an invitation to get out of here. Not really.
Only the impetus to move.
Even once he started, his thoughts couldn’t focus on the board beneath his feet, or the exit sign gleaming ahead of him. All he could think about was this stupid game, and how badly he kept rolling in it, and how maybe that was the universe trying to punish him for letting down his team. He had to be doing that in some capacity, didn’t he? That was probably why his hands started shaking, and why each breath stabbed that much harder, clawing up the insides of his lungs until it felt like he wasn’t really breathing. Failure likewise explained the way he staggered in his heels, and the way that, when he finally reached the exit point, he fumbled.
The ground that rushed up to meet him wasn’t the gameboard, but the pavement back in Destiny City.
Maybe Ilmari’s knees didn’t appreciate it, but the pain that slammed into him barely registered at all.
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