I took a little journey to the unknown

[andtherevolution]

WHO: Utena and Futaba
WHERE: Heropa Residence #10
WHEN: The end of July, after Utena's recovered from her changes in the Shimmer; then early August, after news about the Shimmer breaks
WHAT: The world sucks right now and everything is awful. It's time to make sure that everyone is okay, and to try and make the world marginally less awful.
WARNINGS: Mentions of bodyhorror, death, and trauma.



A week was spent in De Chima, though she barely remembers it. Recovery is a much stronger, and much more painful memory. It took days for her skin to melt back into flesh (still quicker than the natives, she reminded herself), days for what little memories she had to piece themselves together, days to learn how many had fallen in that strange nightmare that took over De Chima.

It took days for her to finally return home. She didn't go to her house, though. That should be her first stop; she could wash the grease out of her hair, and change out of her baggy, borrowed clothes into something familiar. Instead she stood on the sidewalk, numb and nauseous, before she changed direction and walked to the house next door. Futaba... she didn't get mixed up in any of this, did she? She bit her lip and knocked on the door, not realizing how much force she used until she felt her knuckles ache. Utena winced and drew her hand back, and massaged it with her other one while she waited for Futaba.

Comments

[codeoracle]

The knocking was a startling thing, jarring Futaba out of an otherwise calm, if sobering, morning routine spent burrowed in the couch as she checked in on the network. The news of just what happened in De Chima wasn't hard to miss. And though she hadn't personally been involved, she worried for those that were.

Still, the knocking had her stirring, shuffling to the door only to throw it open after peeping through the windows to see who was there.

"Utena? Is everything...Are you okay?" She couldn't miss the state of disarray the other girl was in, considering how out of character it was for her. Maybe she had caught the news just as she had. Maybe she knew people involved--or, gods forbid, had the poor fortune to have been involved herself.

[andtherevolution]

She's here. She's here, she's safe, and she's still Futaba. Utena breathes out in relief, her shoulders slumping down, before she looks back up at her.

"You weren't there," she asks, answering a question with another question. "Were you?"

There's no need to specify what there is. What other place could be as important and notorious as De Chima right now?

[codeoracle]

The question doesn't need further clarification. She bites her lip, shaking her head in the negative. There's a moment where she shifts from foot to foot, uncertain and nervous, before she reaches to take hold of Utena's wrist and pull her into the house. This topic--it's a conversation better had inside, she feels.

"Were you...You weren't there, were you?" Because of course now she has to worry. She hadn't even considered that her friends may have been caught up in it, most of them living outside of De Chima.

[andtherevolution]

Utena lets Futaba drag her inside, and without thinking about it, she slides her hand up, her fingers intertwining with Futaba's. The touch of her hand, the warmth of her skin, it's real. It's solid, unlike the strange dream she's woken up from.

"I have a friend who lives in De Chima," she says, her voice quiet. "I had to see if she was okay."

[codeoracle]

"So you..." Futaba bites her lip, squeezing the hand in hers tightly. "Were you hurt?"

There had been stories of what had happened within the shimmering dome, what those within had faced. There had been deaths--and she could only hope Utena hadn't been among them. She looks at Utena worriedly, wondering if it was better to remain in the dark about what the other girl had experienced--if only to be left unaware of just how badly things had gone, how much she had suffered.

"I--I'm glad you were able to make it back here..."

[andtherevolution]

"It's funny," she says, her voice still soft. "The truth is, I don't really know. I don't know much of anything about what happened back there - it was almost like a dream. I don't remember much, and what I do..."

She shakes her head.

"What I do remember doesn't even feel real. It's... I think I like it better that way."