Drabble+: Victim

[strangetomato]

Prompt: Victim
Characters: Pascal Curious and Nervous Subject
Wordcount: 247
Imagecount: 14
Warnings: violence and death

Here's something nice and light to read before you go to bed. Or maybe not.

"Pascal?"




He had been heading towards the door, going home for the night. He paused, and turned back to face Nervous Subject. "Yes? What is it?"




"Do you think..." He hesitated, then continued. "Would it be okay if I didn't wear the helmet, sometimes?"

"Well, it keeps you from having nightmares."




"Yes, but..." Nervous sighed in exasperation. "It's just that... well, I don't dream at all when I wear it. I'm sick of it. Everyone dreams. I don't even feel like a sim at all. Just... empty."




Pascal nodded. He shouldn't have questioned him. It was Nervous's life and his own choice. He'd been too long a victim, having someone make his decisions for him, and he should be allowed to choose these things for himself. "I suppose it would be okay," he said.




"It's up to you, Nervous. I can only make suggestions. You do what feels right for yourself, okay?"

Nervous nodded his head in agreement, but said nothing more. He seemed to have exhausted all of his words for the day in that one outburst. Pascal said goodbye and made his exit once more.




Nervous headed to bed, without the helmet this time.




He closed his eyes.




Slowly, images formed.




Terrible images.




He witnessed awful scenes of carnage and death.




Something about a wedding.




There were bodies everywhere.




He dreamt of nothing but death.

Those were his choices: horror or emptiness.




Nervous Subject twitched incessantly, grinding his teeth, but he slept through the night.








 

Comments

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm drawn to mixing in the other hoods because I think it's a way to really put my own spin on the story, and not be limited to just Strangetown, which only has so far it can go on its own. Strangetown and Pleasantview are meant to be linked through Bella, anyway, but I'm finding a lot of other connections that may not be intended by the game, but feel right to me.

I'm not sure how much I mentioned the "chopping block" in this journal before. It might have been in an outside conversation. I did mention it once or twice before, at any rate. I've killed off characters for plot purposes, and I do intend at least one more death of a major character.

I do tend to like to put my favourites through the wringer, because I'm a bit of a sucker for drama, and I tend to be drawn to stories like that. All my childhood favourites are things I remember crying over.

Ripp is (obviously) dear to my heart, but that certainly doesn't mean he'll be spared hardships. He's had his share already. Then again, it's a little awkward to kill off the central character of the story. Not unheard of, but unlikely. (I really was planning to have him die in an earlier version. He fell further and further into self-destruction and loneliness, which is something that has already changed because of changes in his relationship with Johnny and Ophelia.)

I think I'm going to start posting shorter chapters in the future, and maybe break each chapter into shorter parts (which I've already been doing). I miss the early days when I could get a couple of updates out in a week. Reposting those made me realize how much shorter they used to be.

Thank you for reading, and thanks for the kind words. ^_^