⇨ The Tourist Trap: PROLOGUE

[ringleaders]

Who: Anyone, anywhere in Portland.
When: Any time before the start of the event.
Where: Portland area, in the new reality.
What: Once you've submitted your AU summary, you can use this post to do some CLOSED THREADING to play out some character interactions that happened before the event start. This means that memory regains will not be in play yet. Open top levels are not allowed - these threads are intended to sort out closed interactions between planned backstory connections, during the week leading up to the actual event start.
Warnings: Could be anything.

PORTLAND, AS YOU KNEW IT↴ The shift went unseen and unfelt. One moment you were one person, and the next, another. This before all that, though, in the new life that you remember living here in Portland. No memories of your true self have arisen yet, and at the time this was the only life you knew. Did these events truly happen at all? Or do they only exist in memory?

Comments

[puddingemote]

Tamaki turns wide, fear-filled eyes from his body to look at Sans, cringing back instantly. The sight of Sans is just as frightening as everything else has been the last few hours at first, but after a moment, he starts to feel a strange calm settle over him. It takes him a few seconds, but then he relaxes, standing up.

"Is this a dream? How can I be split in two?"

He looks back at his body, shuddering. He keeps hoping it will move, he will move, and get up and join him standing in the middle of the room.

[osteothropy]

"Don't worry about it too much," Sans says, trivializing it a little bit. He gestures at the version of Tamaki that is still laying on the bed. "That's just your body. You..." he gestures at the Tamaki standing before him. "... are your soul. The soul is the important part, really."

He winks. He has several eyes, and about half of them close in the process.

"I know things didn't work out too well for you this time around... but it can get better. Promise."

[puddingemote]

His soul?

Tamaki looks from his body to Sans' winking face. How can he just be a soul? He has to be a body too.

A part of him knows the truth, but he's not ready to face that. He was only a year away from aging out and taking his freedom. Surely it can't all be over now. Surely this can't be all there was to life.

"Y-you mean at the next house?" he asks, his voice shaking. He can't really be dead. He'll be removed from this home, because they didn't take care of him, that's all.

[osteothropy]

This is always the worst part. Especially in a case where the cause of death was stupid and just pain unfair. Though it pains him on a spiritual level to have to witness this, Sans tries to keep it from affecting his exterior presentation. The more normal he makes it seem, maybe the more confident the ghost will be in it.

"Nah, better than that. You didn't make it this time, but now you've got the chance to take what you've learned to all the other souls waiting to live again. And hey, when you get your next shot, things might work out better."

He shrugs a shoulder.

"Dead people are pretty cool when you get to know them."

[puddingemote]

Next shot? Living again? Tamaki puts a hand to his forehead, the words swirling around his head. He never believed in all this stuff - souls, reincarnation, angels and heaven and hell. But now that he's learning it's all real, he feels no comfort in it. He doesn't want to wait for his chance to live again. He wants to live now, as Tamaki Yotsuba. He might not have been an important or impressive person, but his life wasn't nothing, was it?

"...I didn't learn anything. What am I supposed to take?" He gestures at his body in the bed, small and lifeless. "How to avoid this? Someone has to call the ambulance!"

Someone has to care about you enough to help you. Tamaki doesn't know how to fix other people. Maybe it's all his fault no one cared, after all.

"Why didn't you do something?" He whirls back on Sans, pointing a finger. "Aren't angels supposed to help?"

[osteothropy]

As aggressive as that is, Sans doesn't flinch. He's been through this enough times that it's practically expected. Still, his expression sobers just a little - it's not a joke to him, as much as he's not going to break down crying because of a job he's theoretically been doing for his whole existence.

"Angels can't solve all of humanity's problems, bud," he says. "There's too much, and it's not our job. At least not for angels like me." His hands are stuffed into his pockets, which is the only sign of his inner defensiveness.

"I'm not tryin' to be an asshole here, but sometimes you just get unlucky. It's not your fault. A lot of other people out there get pretty unlucky, too."

[puddingemote]

"I-is that supposed to make me feel better?" Tamaki snaps, pulling his hand back in to unconsciously hug himself around the middle. "I just have to accept that no one did anything and that's... that's fine?"

He can't possibly accept it. It won't make what happened okay, it won't make the despair in his heart go away. He shakes his head, fingers curling into his t-shirt.

"Will they even get in trouble for this?" It's a desperate question. Please tell him at least something is right with the world.