soldieronwards | heart and soul

Entry tags:

aather,
ic

heart and soul

The ground falls out beneath you. You're in midair, you're surrounded by swirling clouds, and there's nowhere stable to put your feet. The space between your body and the turbulence around you feels poorly defined as well; where do you end and your surroundings begin? Is there a stable you in the first place?

But eventually--

[ Join channel #nobodystaysdeadincomics on IRC. ]

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. . .

It looks nice in here.

[but inspecting the statues, anyway.]

From the start of the hall to the end by the doors, the six statues follow a progression. They start with a young boy holding up a full mask over his face; next is a smiling teenager in a domino mask; next a blank-faced young man in a mask like a muzzle; next a man whose face is mostly obscured by something that might be a mask or might be bandages; next a man standing proudly with a full cowl over his features; and next a man in knightly armor, save for the smiling full mask he holds up over his face.

For the most part, the statues are a single piece, but the masks are not a part of that piece--they are actually made of plastic or porcelain or cloth, and their colors stand out incongruously against the white marble.

[. . .]

Masks. Masks are used to hide things.

That's true.

[ still looking deep in thought ]

What should we do?

Mm...

I have my micsaber. If we went back, we could try to jam the card reader that way.

They do look comfortable here, don't they? I'm not sure if they're ready for someone else to move them.

[ kind of. holding on to his own mask, reflexively ]

Micsaber?

Masks are something that you should only remove when you're ready. My micsaber is my sword—the same thing that helps me create shields can be focused in the micsaber, and I can use it to protect myself.

[so basically i would be jamming a sword made of concentrated love and hope into bucky's heart]

Oh— then, we would be essentially be disabling the card reader with your hopes and song??

[ I HAVE NO TROUBLE FOLLOWING THIS ]

Probably! Do you want to try?

Yes! I don't see what could go wrong!

[ HONEST ]

[WELL THEN WE ARE GOING BACK DOWN]

[well while you guys were discussing that he went ahead and took all the masks off, oops]

[ FOUR FOR YOU ]

[.. YOU SURE DID THE THING]

[SURE DID and now he's touching things that are probably totally safe]

[PINNOCHIO PLEASE]

[idk about you guys but he's promptly going to start pulling the masks off, starting with the knight]

You pull away the mask from the statue. For just a second, you can see the face behind it--and then a crack shivers loudly through it.

Are you going to keep at it with the other statues, Pinocchio?

[he hesitates a moment, but yes, he's going to do the same with the others]

The same thing happens. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.

[was that a good thing to do. . . we can only hope]

[leaving the masks at the bases of their respective statues]

Behind the cracked marble of the statues' faces, something indefinable and vague swirls, a kind of bubbling, fiery protoplasm with no clear shape of its own. Just looking at it makes you faintly uncomfortable.