[Day 1]
Fuhen was reading. Truly his worst nightmare, unmistakable for anything else. Truly the mega-badass samurai warrior that he was couldn't possibly fall victim to anything else, just the one thing that had eluded him for most of his life... Words.
When suddenly, he heard a scream. Something feminine, something close, something dangerous. He bolted off like lightning to go see what could be causing such terror in his kingdom... Or at least he tried. As he moved, he felt his soul leap from his body, and his body crumbled to dust leaving a pile of vaguely Fuhen-colored bits in a pile of vaguely Fuhen-clothing-colored bits. He was still whole, in a sort of visual sense, his body seemed to still exist, and yet everything felt weightless, as if it was the rough draft of the drawing rather than the final version.
He could only stare at his fallen sandbody, and even as he tried to blink, he couldn't. He looked down over himself to see that everything was much the same. Was this some sort of ninja trick? Regardless, he had to go. The scream had still happened regardless of whatever had just happened to him, his needs and confusion weren't nearly as important at the moment as figuring out what was going on and ensuring his people were safe.
Off like a bolt of lightning again... Or at least he tried to be. As he moved, his entire room filled with honey in a tidal wave of the sticky substance, slowing him down. The amber bee vomit goop went from floor to ceiling, and where it came from was anyone's guess. He moved his arms around and tried to pull himself through the stuff, wondering briefly if this was an attack by Iwa Shinobi, having once heard of some of their shinobi that cultivated bee varieties.
Regardless, his movement was slower than a particularly downtrodden civillian in the midst of this sea of gold, and he inched his way towards the nearest exit, a pair of doublewide windows. If he could just open them and get out, perhaps he could... Wait, how was he breathing fine inside a wave of honey? He didn't particularly taste the stuff either, he realized, nor did it hurt his eyes to be open in the midst of this strange foreign attack. None of this was making any sense, but Fuhen was trying harder than ever to push himself out of the room.
It felt like the harder he struggled, the slower he moved, and yet harder he struggled still, a herculean task until he finally reached the window, grabbed on to the handle, and flung it open with all the haste of a snail slithering across salt. The honey oozed out of the window and on to the courtyard below where he'd roughly heard the scream coming from, and as his vision adjusted to the change in light, below him were... Shinobi, of some kind or another. Xincha was on fire, and its people were running about terrified, screaming. Fuhen's gut sank, and he finally pulled himself out of the window to leap outside...
Except as he jumped, there was no strength in his legs, and as he hit the ground, his fortitude did nothing for him, and both of his legs snapped, loudly, painfully. He screamed, but perservered, he'd fought through worse in the past. Slowly he crawled along the ground, but so weak he felt as he moved towards a young maiden being assaulted by a trio of tough looking ninja, reaching a hand out towards them, grabbing one of them on the ankle...
When his hand, arm, and then his body turned to bubbles. Bit by bit his body floated up into the sky, and he could not move, he could not scream, he could do nothing. He could only watch as the empire that he had built was torn asunder right before his eyes, and there was nothing he could do to save the people. The bubbles floated over the tops of the buildings, showing him all that was wrong with the world, showing him all that he hadn't yet solved, all that yet was and could be... And yet, he could do nothing, but float, float away.
[AGF] What the fuck is going on
[AGF] What the fuck is going on
Last edited by Nick on Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
 | Suzuko Just another girl |
[AGM] What the fuck is going on
[Day 2]
The bubbles floated onwards and outwards, far away from the city of Xincha and over the horizon line to places unknown and unexplored. Fuhen's consciousness still existed within the bubbles, and he could see all that was around him, sense and feel the things that he could not stop, could not see, and could not act upon in any way, shape, or form. Was this to be his life now, helpless and wandering like he was a small child again? Would he be stuck like this for the rest of his days?
Slowly, the bubbles started to fall to the earth, and the places he was floating over seemed significantly more peaceful, until the foam coalesced on the ground in the middle of a city, a rather busy marketplace with lots of people around, and yet something was wrong, something he couldn't quite put his finger on... There was no noise. To his left, a woman argued with a man, waving a cabbage emphatically in his direction, likely complaining either about the quality or the price of the product, and the man was clearly raising his voice back...
To the right, a dog barked, its jowls flabbering about with slobber flying as it tugged against its lead held by a child only as large as the dog was, struggling to hold it back from biting a stranger on the street. He spun around in a circle slowly, taking in the sights around him, all his other senses running in overdrive compensating for the lack of noise, and yet there was still... Nothing. He opened his own mouth to speak, and while no sound came out, a stranger walking past him on the street did turn to look at him funny, as if he'd heard something.
Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned around to look at whoever it was that was trying to get his attention. When he saw... Aimi? It couldn't possibly be. His heart dropped down into his stomach, and his old friend smiled at him, moved his mouth as if to speak, and jerked his thumb over his shoulder, gesturing to some kind of bar or another. He stared in disbelief all the same, unable to comprehend that his hearing seemed to be gone, but that his old friend was back and alive as well! Was any of this real? Was this another visit to the spirit realm? Was he being tricked?
A tear fell down Fuhen's face, and he smiled back at Aimi, suddenly moving forwards to wrap him in a hug. Aimi had been one of his only real friends beyond his family, at least most of whom were still alive... But were they? He had seen Xincha destroyed, he had heard the screams of his people as they suffered under the might of chakra-enhanced ninja abusing their power to beat down on the little people as he had so often accused them of. Did their suffering bring Aimi back to him?
Aimi stared at his friend incredulous and made the motions of laughing, even if the sound never reached Fuhen's ears. They threw an arm over eachothers shoulders and waltzed into the bar that he had gestured to, only to discover that service had stopped and people seemed to be fighting! Aimi smiled and gestured towards them, a good old fashioned bar fight was the kind of scuffle they could both get down for!
The owner themselves seemed to be pleading for anyone to stop the violence... So Fuhen smiled and put up his dukes. He punched one man square in the jaw, and he felt... quite weak. Certainly he hadn't punched as hard as he could have, not wanting to permanently injure the man, but only yesterday that same punch would have knocked a civilian to the ground! He looked at his fist, taking his eye off the fight... Only to have someone blindside him, smashing in the side of his face, and he could feel his body start to withdraw...
From the center point of the punch, his chin, then his neck, then his body all started to fold in on itself as if he was being sucked into a black hole, and suddenly, everything was dark.
The bubbles floated onwards and outwards, far away from the city of Xincha and over the horizon line to places unknown and unexplored. Fuhen's consciousness still existed within the bubbles, and he could see all that was around him, sense and feel the things that he could not stop, could not see, and could not act upon in any way, shape, or form. Was this to be his life now, helpless and wandering like he was a small child again? Would he be stuck like this for the rest of his days?
Slowly, the bubbles started to fall to the earth, and the places he was floating over seemed significantly more peaceful, until the foam coalesced on the ground in the middle of a city, a rather busy marketplace with lots of people around, and yet something was wrong, something he couldn't quite put his finger on... There was no noise. To his left, a woman argued with a man, waving a cabbage emphatically in his direction, likely complaining either about the quality or the price of the product, and the man was clearly raising his voice back...
To the right, a dog barked, its jowls flabbering about with slobber flying as it tugged against its lead held by a child only as large as the dog was, struggling to hold it back from biting a stranger on the street. He spun around in a circle slowly, taking in the sights around him, all his other senses running in overdrive compensating for the lack of noise, and yet there was still... Nothing. He opened his own mouth to speak, and while no sound came out, a stranger walking past him on the street did turn to look at him funny, as if he'd heard something.
Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned around to look at whoever it was that was trying to get his attention. When he saw... Aimi? It couldn't possibly be. His heart dropped down into his stomach, and his old friend smiled at him, moved his mouth as if to speak, and jerked his thumb over his shoulder, gesturing to some kind of bar or another. He stared in disbelief all the same, unable to comprehend that his hearing seemed to be gone, but that his old friend was back and alive as well! Was any of this real? Was this another visit to the spirit realm? Was he being tricked?
A tear fell down Fuhen's face, and he smiled back at Aimi, suddenly moving forwards to wrap him in a hug. Aimi had been one of his only real friends beyond his family, at least most of whom were still alive... But were they? He had seen Xincha destroyed, he had heard the screams of his people as they suffered under the might of chakra-enhanced ninja abusing their power to beat down on the little people as he had so often accused them of. Did their suffering bring Aimi back to him?
Aimi stared at his friend incredulous and made the motions of laughing, even if the sound never reached Fuhen's ears. They threw an arm over eachothers shoulders and waltzed into the bar that he had gestured to, only to discover that service had stopped and people seemed to be fighting! Aimi smiled and gestured towards them, a good old fashioned bar fight was the kind of scuffle they could both get down for!
The owner themselves seemed to be pleading for anyone to stop the violence... So Fuhen smiled and put up his dukes. He punched one man square in the jaw, and he felt... quite weak. Certainly he hadn't punched as hard as he could have, not wanting to permanently injure the man, but only yesterday that same punch would have knocked a civilian to the ground! He looked at his fist, taking his eye off the fight... Only to have someone blindside him, smashing in the side of his face, and he could feel his body start to withdraw...
From the center point of the punch, his chin, then his neck, then his body all started to fold in on itself as if he was being sucked into a black hole, and suddenly, everything was dark.
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
| Suzuko Just another girl |
[AGF] What the fuck is going on
[Day 4]
The darkness continued. He floated through space and time, and after awhile, his sense of sound came back. He heard the laughter of Aimi, first, a deep noise that not many got to hear from the rather serious man, but the two were friends that could usually get the better of each other. He heard his siblings snoring, a comforting sound, all thirteen of them piled up in the same small hut with him, draped over top of each other, huddled for warmth. He heard his mother telling him off for not coming back to visit often enough, and he made a mental note to visit her as soon as he could, if he ever escaped from this nightmare.
He heard his father, passing on a series of life lessons... And then he heard his mother again, crying as she told Fuhen his father died just days before he'd gotten home. If only he'd been faster, stronger... He heard... water? And then he started to feel, too, water on his feet. The darkness continued. The sound of water was not too different from that of a waterfall only inches from his head, the heavy sound of splashing initially dull as it hit solid ground, but then seemed to sharpen as it displaced further water and splashed up on his ankles and legs.
Was the room filling with syrup again? How much syrup could the world afford for just him? Surely, he'd gone through the supply of a small country by now, how many countries would sacrifice their syrup just to drown the Shogun? No, not syrup, he realized. This had to be water. Syrup wouldn't splash it would ooze, and he probably wouldn't be able to hear it. Experimentally, he moved his body, though the sensory deprivation made the sensation feel strange. First his fingers, they moved just fine. Then his hands, he could clench and unclench them, but he couldn't move his arms afterwards. The water was up to his knees. He pulled at his bonds to no avail. He felt the sensation of rope digging into his wrists, and in a normal situation he would have ripped the rope asunder.
But here, he was just as strong as he was when he was a kid again. Before the blessings of Takiyasha-hime had made him who he was. Before his training in Frost country. Before he'd understood what it meant to be a samurai and a protector. Before he could even really call himself a man. Back when he thought that if you couldn't stick up for yourself, you were weak and unworthy of being saved. A small laugh escaped his mouth. How different that was from his outlook now. Now he sacrificed so much of his life for people who sometimes didn't even want to be saved. It was something he often thought about -- Was he even in the right for trying to rescue these people? They didn't ask for his help. Did he really know what was best for them? The older brother in him said yes, the fact that he was just a man said no. But, he supposed, he wasn't just a man. He was the Grand Shogun. People flocked to him and followed him because his ideals spoke to them.
The water was up to his chest now. He remembered that was a bad thing. He continued trying to move his body, shifting his hips, finding his waist tied down as well. Then his feet. Tied at the ankles. He wriggled his whole body, he had escaped bonds similar to these before when he'd been captured once or twice, not just by brute force, but sometimes by slithering himself free. The water was up to his neck now.
His hands pulled at the bonds, and still he could not manage to break them. Why was he so weak again? Had Takiyasha-hime removed her blessings? Was that all that had ever made him strong? Not his own hard work? Up to his chin now, he thrashed. The chair he was seated in didn't seem to be bolted to the floor. He kicked himself backwards with what little movement his feet could make until he hit a wall, trying to maybe break the chair... To no avail, and in fact, caused the chair to tip over sideways.
His head was submerged in the water now and he continued to struggle, struggle, struggle. He couldn't breathe. He felt his death oncoming, and he... Didn't want to accept it. This was not the death of a samurai. This was not the way to go. If he wasn't underwater, tears would run down his face, but the crying only caused him to lose control of his breath, sucking in the water around, and just like with his blackened vision, the rest of the world went dark.
The Shogun would not receive a warriors death on this day.
The darkness continued. He floated through space and time, and after awhile, his sense of sound came back. He heard the laughter of Aimi, first, a deep noise that not many got to hear from the rather serious man, but the two were friends that could usually get the better of each other. He heard his siblings snoring, a comforting sound, all thirteen of them piled up in the same small hut with him, draped over top of each other, huddled for warmth. He heard his mother telling him off for not coming back to visit often enough, and he made a mental note to visit her as soon as he could, if he ever escaped from this nightmare.
He heard his father, passing on a series of life lessons... And then he heard his mother again, crying as she told Fuhen his father died just days before he'd gotten home. If only he'd been faster, stronger... He heard... water? And then he started to feel, too, water on his feet. The darkness continued. The sound of water was not too different from that of a waterfall only inches from his head, the heavy sound of splashing initially dull as it hit solid ground, but then seemed to sharpen as it displaced further water and splashed up on his ankles and legs.
Was the room filling with syrup again? How much syrup could the world afford for just him? Surely, he'd gone through the supply of a small country by now, how many countries would sacrifice their syrup just to drown the Shogun? No, not syrup, he realized. This had to be water. Syrup wouldn't splash it would ooze, and he probably wouldn't be able to hear it. Experimentally, he moved his body, though the sensory deprivation made the sensation feel strange. First his fingers, they moved just fine. Then his hands, he could clench and unclench them, but he couldn't move his arms afterwards. The water was up to his knees. He pulled at his bonds to no avail. He felt the sensation of rope digging into his wrists, and in a normal situation he would have ripped the rope asunder.
But here, he was just as strong as he was when he was a kid again. Before the blessings of Takiyasha-hime had made him who he was. Before his training in Frost country. Before he'd understood what it meant to be a samurai and a protector. Before he could even really call himself a man. Back when he thought that if you couldn't stick up for yourself, you were weak and unworthy of being saved. A small laugh escaped his mouth. How different that was from his outlook now. Now he sacrificed so much of his life for people who sometimes didn't even want to be saved. It was something he often thought about -- Was he even in the right for trying to rescue these people? They didn't ask for his help. Did he really know what was best for them? The older brother in him said yes, the fact that he was just a man said no. But, he supposed, he wasn't just a man. He was the Grand Shogun. People flocked to him and followed him because his ideals spoke to them.
The water was up to his chest now. He remembered that was a bad thing. He continued trying to move his body, shifting his hips, finding his waist tied down as well. Then his feet. Tied at the ankles. He wriggled his whole body, he had escaped bonds similar to these before when he'd been captured once or twice, not just by brute force, but sometimes by slithering himself free. The water was up to his neck now.
His hands pulled at the bonds, and still he could not manage to break them. Why was he so weak again? Had Takiyasha-hime removed her blessings? Was that all that had ever made him strong? Not his own hard work? Up to his chin now, he thrashed. The chair he was seated in didn't seem to be bolted to the floor. He kicked himself backwards with what little movement his feet could make until he hit a wall, trying to maybe break the chair... To no avail, and in fact, caused the chair to tip over sideways.
His head was submerged in the water now and he continued to struggle, struggle, struggle. He couldn't breathe. He felt his death oncoming, and he... Didn't want to accept it. This was not the death of a samurai. This was not the way to go. If he wasn't underwater, tears would run down his face, but the crying only caused him to lose control of his breath, sucking in the water around, and just like with his blackened vision, the rest of the world went dark.
The Shogun would not receive a warriors death on this day.
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
| Suzuko Just another girl |