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“...ara? Shara wake up, you already slept late!”
The firbolg woman jolted awake at the voice calling her name and blinked, sitting up as she looked around the room she was in, able to recognize it in a heartbeat. “This... this isn’t right.” She thought. “This isn’t right its been years- how am I here- “ The train of thought dropped like a stone though, when the same voice from before spoke, the source coming from outside of the room.
“Shara? You awake?” The voice said, and the speaker poked her head in the door, smiling when she saw the other was awake. “C’mon now sleepy head, get dressed. We’ve got a lot to do today, love.” The half-elven woman said, before going back to what she had been doing.
“Nerina?” Shara thought, moving in autopilot as she started to get up, looking down at herself as she did. She hadn’t taken this form since... since...
“This has got to be a dream.” She thinks, moving without direction, and it feels like all she did was blink- but she was out if the room now, moving through the small house she and Nerina lived in, only to find her partner in their little kitchen, putting together a lunch- and all of a sudden it didn’t feel like a dream. She had recognized what the other was putting together. It had been five years- but this was meant to be memorable, that day they had planned...
This wasn’t a dream- it could only of been a nightmare, but Shara couldn’t do anything- a blink later and the two were moving down a path, now in the Weltan wilderness, Nerina’s hand clasped around her own pulling her along excitedly as she chatted-
Another blink and it was colder. Much colder. A few snowflakes were even starting to fall.
“It shouldn’t be snowing...” Nerina said, trailing off but watching the small flurries of snow drift down with a soft smile on her face- enjoying the sight of the snow all the same. “Well- it shouldn’t stick too much, it's the wrong time of year for it- it’ll make it look even better though-“ The woman continued, stopping as the pairing entered a clearing, only to see more people there already.
And it only took them a moment to notice the two newcomers- and Shara wanted to scream, yell, do anything- she already knew how this would end. She had lived through it before, after all. But just like before, the world faded to black, and five faces stuck in her memory, like they had before.
...
“...ara? Shara wake up, you already slept late!”
“Again?” Nomos thought, already having shed their Shara mask, too tired to take it again after the first three loops of the day. “Not again... I can’t watch it all happen again-“ But they did. And nothing they did was changing it- offering going somewhere else, trying to return once the flurries started, trying to just stay home- no matter what, the day always progressed the way it had.
When they tried to take a different path, it still led to the clearing. When they tried to turn back, they still ended up in the clearing. And no matter what they did, Nerina would always lead them out, unaware of what would happen. And they couldn’t even warn her. The words died every time- almost as if something was stopping them. They couldn’t warn her that the day would end with her missing and gone for years- and they just kept losing her over and over.
Even when they woke as Paik, a mask that Nerina had never seen, it still continued, looping again and again- trapped in a nightmare that just never seemed to end.