[dream]

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

[warning for light torture elements]
[She's Cinderella, running down polished glass hallways. (She is also, at the same time, a rat.) A labyrinth, with walls stretching above her head, too thick to shatter. There's a goal, a reward, a way out somewhere, if she can just find it.

[The center: sunflower seeds (huge to a human, normal-sized to a rat), colored green and silver. She reaches for the reward.]

ZAP

[The shock is painful and from nowhere (or a hand on the dial in Milgram's experiment). She backs away, turns to try the maze again.]

ZAP

[She freezes, waiting for the pain to fade.]

ZAP

[It continues no matter what, and there's nothing to do. And now the maze is clear (her perspective is overhead, even as she's stuck below) and there is no exit, no reward, only endless glass walls, teasing offers of treats, and now the shocks.]

ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP

[She sags, sliding down the wall and pulling her knees to her chest, and tries to restrain the twitching of her muscles against the torture.]

Comments

[no-hometown.livejournal.com]

[Appearing suddenly in the maze, a silver-haired child watches Jessica with wide green eyes.] Hello. [She is sympathetic. Sometimes tests don't seem to make any sense, and she often dislikes them.]

Perhaps this experiment is to determine how well you can withstand pain. Your professor will be pleased if you remain still and calm.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

[She looks up, staring for a moment, then lets out a low laugh, tears running down her cheeks.] This is just cruel...

I don't know why I want to please this professor. It's not going to stop this. [She still doesn't move, in spite of this.]

You know, if you put a dog in a cage with an electrified floor, it'll stop moving, and it won't even leave if you open the door later.

[no-hometown.livejournal.com]

The professor always stops in the end. [She pauses, feeling the need to be fully truthful.] It might take a while. It depends on your performance.

You are not a dog. You can reason. You will know. [She comes forward, curious, her hand brushing Jessica's arms experimentally.] I do not see what is causing your distress.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

And then starts up again. Less of a stop, more of a break.

Nobody does. Do you want to?

[no-hometown.livejournal.com]

[She agrees with this.] There are always more tests, but they don't last as long if you do well. What's your professor's name? [Hojo, Hollander, Gast--those names run through her head.]

I want to. I must identify the source of a problem before I can find a solution.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Don't know... Queen of Hearts? Life?

[She sighs and leans forward. Wires just out of her back, twisting up into the ceiling. They were always there, in the way of dream objects.]

There's no solution, though.

[no-hometown.livejournal.com]

That's right, the Queen. Now I remember you. I was here before.

There is always a solution. [Sephiroth says this confidently. She leans around to study the wires.] Let me think.

[mellifluently.livejournal.com]

[Oh, this is terrible. Mahalia rushes to Jessica's side, wrapping her arms around her, regardless of whether this means she'll experience the same shocks.]

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

[She struggles.] Are you crazy?! Flesh is a conductor!

[mellifluently.livejournal.com]

[Her grip loosens, alarmed by Jessica's struggles, but she shakes her head.]

That doesn't matter.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

There's no sense in both of us getting it.

What are you doing here, anyway?

[mellifluently.livejournal.com]

It might be lessened, between two.

I don't know. Maybe I'm here to help you. Where is this place?

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

I doubt it'd be significant.

It's... a maze. You have to run it.

[mnementomori]

[she pounds on the glass, stuck on the other side of a maze wall. What's happening to her friend?]

Jessica, Jessica!

[her voice is muffled, but audible enough.]

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

[Wait what? She looks up, confused.]

...Xion?

[mnementomori]

Y-yeah, it's me--th...they're hurting you!

[she steps back and summons her Keyblade, swinging it as hard as she can, hoping to make a dent in the wall.]

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

[She watches impassively- still occasionally jerking involuntarily. A chip flies off the wall, clattering on the floor. Jessica scoots back in surprise.]

[mnementomori]

[Xion is the one that came up with the suggestion "when in doubt, give it a good smack", and despite her size she lays into that wall with gusto. Her friend is in pain, there's no way she's backing down.]

Don't worry, I'll get you out!

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

[This is not something Jessica was expecting. Apparently, neither were whatever entities designed the place, because there's soon a gaping hole in the glass wall.]

um... wow.

ZAP

[welljustwatchme.livejournal.com]

[This isn't her dream, isn't anything she's really familiar with at all, but Canada doesn't take time to worry about that. Adjustment time is not a necessity when someone needs you.]

Jessica! [At the same time she's running over to her, she's falling to her knees, sliding to a stop on the hard floor in front of her fellow wall-flower.] How do we get you out of this?

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

[She looks up, puzzled.] Canada?

I don't think we do. Barring an early death...

[welljustwatchme.livejournal.com]

There's always something... [Although her mind does flint to ways to put Jessica out of her misery while they're trapped here. It's just a dream, after all. Surely the Gardens wouldn't be so cruel as to make it lethal.

Although she can never trust them completely.]

Aside from the shocks, are you hurt?

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. It'd be kind of counterproductive to injure me. I'm supposed to keep going.

[welljustwatchme.livejournal.com]

What's your end goal?

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

[She laughs humorlessly] Death?

I think the idea's just to keep going for no real reason.