[OPEN] If this day was your last

[silentabyss]

Who: Noah & YOU!
What: July Catch-All
When: Throughout July
Where: Various; see prompts for specific locations
Warnings: Will be posted in specific prompt headers if they come up
Notes: Open prompts are in here, as well as specific closed things! If you want me for something either send a message to this journal, poke me on the game discord, or bonk me at wolfchan!



FURTHER NOTES: Throughout the month Noah has an extremely obvious cut on his arm that has also torn the sleeve of his jacket. He keeps it bandaged but for the first week of the month it's extremely obviously there. People are free to approach him at any time about the injury and ask him questions, but be warned he will get extremely defensive and aggressive if pushed too much. Could make for some fun CR, idk.

Comments

[silentabyss]

[All this science would be fun and cool and all that if they weren't harassing those legendary heroes Noah was looking for in the first place. Or, well, harassing people in general — that poor girl probably thinks the house is haunted, way to go Add.

He glances up as new people enter the room, and Noah being Noah he immediately slinks behind the wall and hides before remembering for the umpteenth time that no one here can see them. Still, he doesn't come back out from behind it, peering around the corner and sucking in a breath.

Fascinating. Uh, hmm... just a bunch of acquaintances his ass. He called it! He called it, Noah knows everything, etc etc anyway there's really not that much time to gloat because—]

Add, uh— turn around.

[—because Noah thinks they should leave, as he's stated five billion times over. They can just go find the elevator again and walk out of here and it'll be fine! Right? Right. Nothing bad will happen, totally. Nothing bad ever happens where Add is concerned.]

[subtract]

[Add is still cackling away, chucking tiles like he's having a grand old time. Really, isn't this what was missing from such a pleasant, peaceful little game night? Don't these idiots have more important things to do? If he were still here—

ugh, what's Noah going on about now? He pauses in his assault, turning to ask the other boy what all the fuss is about...

oh

Add freezes up again, dropping his handful of Scrabble tiles, and... takes a lot longer to recover, this time. That's him. Which means this can't be his timeline after all... but this doesn't make sense. Too many pieces are adding up, the other-him doesn't look like he's supposed to, not at this point in time. The outfit is suspicious, but the exposed corruption in his shoulder—why in El's name is that on display, around them? Has he completely lost his mind?!

This other-him, this Add, can't possibly be real, not even as an illusion of another reality. There's no way he'd ever be allowed to stay, not when he's like this. It can't be possible.

(with the "ghost" having suddenly stopped, it seems that the other-Add and Aisha are now arguing over whether it really happened or not... or maybe accusing other-Add of being the culprit, since it is something he'd do with his powers. but it seems to be no more serious of a quarrel than her earlier fight with Elsword, and the mood has lightened again. in a moment, Rena and Ciel will return to see what all the fuss was about, a fresh tray of un-dropped cookies in tow...)

He backs away from the table, towards where Noah has hidden himself... but he isn't going any further than that. He can't look away from this. He hates it, it shouldn't matter to him but for some reason he hates it...]

... Wrong, wrong. Why is he... what's the point of this? That's not what would happen, it's not even remotely plausible this way. I've already calculated every possible outcome, he has to be lying, or...

[silentabyss]

[The exposed corruption on his shoulder is interesting, as is the fact that Add looks... not ten? But Noah really doesn't have much time to parse that. At first, he's rather busy staring at the strange patch of what Noah assumes used to be flesh and is now something entirely different, though he can't name exactly what it is; then his attention turns to how the mood lightens and everyone goes back to being friends, "arguments" forgotten and left behind.]

It's based on memories, isn't it?

[Not that Noah's calling Add out, but he's kind of calling Add out. Still, he'd probably be pretty upset to have an experience like this himself, so he's sympathetic at least. It must be a major out of body experience. But what does Add mean, "not remotely plausible"? That's what bothers Noah the most, more than the reveal that Add is part of this little... er, not-so-little family of heroes they stumbled their way into.]

...maybe you were with all of them like this at one point, and you lost those memories when you got stuck there?

[To Noah, memory loss on a grand scale isn't implausible in the least. Perhaps it is to others, but not to him; that's his go-to for unexplainable things. Then again, Noah's also not a scientist, and he certainly hasn't seen himself in timelines he's hopped through like how Add is now. Briefly, he considers the possibility that maybe Add's theory about this being "based on memories" may not be entirely correct. Noah's gone through enough time loops to where he should know alternate timelines when he sees them, but...

...this one isn't his no matter how he looks at it, so he doesn't voice that thought.]

Are you upset because you miss your friends...?

[How much does he really want to prod at Add right now?]

[subtract]

No, this is impossible. [He raises his voice, not quite yelling yet but definitely a step above the mumbling he'd been doing a moment ago. This, a lost memory? The mere suggestion of it makes his skin crawl, something vague and terrifying twisting in his chest.

It's just a cruel trick. He can't think of it as anything else, or...

or he might be wrong. he can't be wrong.

The other-Add is dragged onto the sofa, forced to participate in this stupid word game with everyone else. Treats are passed around, the board is reset, Ciel slips him an extra cookie like he knows that's enough to placate the grouchy scientist... and the real Add scoffs, a bitter laugh escaping his throat.]

I don't miss my friends. I don't have any friends. All of this... it's just some stupid joke! Why aren't they even reacting?!

[he wants to wipe away this whole disgusting scene, raze it all to the ground... but alas, he's still powerless. he doubts he could even flip the table if he tried.

He has to settle for just seething at everyone, hugging his sides—pulling his coat tightly around him, and perhaps Noah will realize now that he's been hiding that same shoulder that looks distorted and crystallized on this other-him. Noah might need to drag Add away before he starts plotting out how to kill everyone in this room, though.]