To; Pride Employees

[worthlesspride]

To; Trucy@priderecords.prc, jamieh@priderecords.prc, daturakeys@priderecords.prc, theicequeen@priderecords.prc, Y.Kisaragi@priderecords.prc, username@priderecords.prc, rmustang@priderecords.prc, GrandKingTooru@priderecords.prc, thornydouchebag@priderecords.prc, kbomi@priderecords.prc, s.squalo@priderecords.prc, variaboss@priderecords.prc, t.ward@priderecords.prc, pinkie@priderecords.prc, clawsofthedragon@priderecords.prc, genos@priderecords.prc, maxoliver@priderecords.prc, gg@priderecords.prc, tigeruniverse@priderecords.prc, bbrantley@priderecords.prc, lightbringer@priderecords.prc, theangelsariel@priderecords.prc, flashstepdemyx@priderecords.prc

From; theunkown@smail.com

Subject: Remember.

Remember?

From Junkyard Carnival
Alec Campion
Wakana Sonozaki
Fetch Walker
Poe Dameron

From Flashstep
Sora
Yosuke Hanamura

From Cosmic Indulgence
Koumei Ren
Richard St. Vier
Nariko Lunae

From System Crash
Sayaka Miki
Maki Nishikino

From Crown of Thorns
Wolfram von Bielefeld

From Manticore
Ryuko Matoi
Orion Pax

Where are they now? Are you safe?

Do not trust Lesedi Santiago. Stay vigilant, stay safe. Trust your real memories.

[The e-mail account was deleted soon after sending it this message. The IP address was tracked down to a public library. If asked the person who used the computer signed in as Wakatoshi Ushijima. The truth is that Oikawa had gone out, with his body guard, claiming to want some exercise stopped by the library, quickly copied and pasted the list from a flash drive, and thrown it away as soon as he was done. There was no copy on his personal computer. Once done he headed to his physical therapy appointment. ]

Comments

[worthlesspride]

Look, I have no idea what your time was like on your planet. To be honest, if it's anything like Sawbones then I don't want to know.

But yes, take that third option. You don't want to go back to being a psycho killer or whatever? That's great, I support you one hundred percent.

[He pokes Sariel in the chest]

You won't find that third option here. Not with Santiago ruling your life. She's going to use you like a giant human battery and throw you in the garbage when she's used you up.

[psyvampexperiment]

[He shakes his head.] Sawbones was... a symbol of the kind of man I was. The world I came from was quite an ordinary one, extraordinary things existed on the edges of the ordinary life that most people knew, and I... I was partly one of them, keeping one foot in the normal world, as a physician and surgeon. I don't want to be that man again. If I could somehow go on being Kiernan MacLeod, a man who loves the shadows, but doesn't let them consume him, and let Kazutaka Muraki, the man who let the shadows within him consume him, I'd take every opportunity.

[He might smirk a bit at that poke in the chest, before replying.]

Funny that you should mention human batteries, since I was the sort of creature who more or less viewed humans just that way. I almost deserve whatever fate awaits me here, unless there's some safe way to... unleash that part of me safely and carefully, without it turning against you and everyone else, but only on those who deserve to have the tables turned on him.

[worthlesspride]

[... Fuck, holy fucking fuck. Aliens like Artolo is one thing.

Psycho killers who did magic? Not good, not a good at all.]

Then don't be that man.

[To Tooru Oikawa it's a simple as that]

Don't be Sawbones. Don't be Kazutaka Muraki. Be Sariel, be Kiernan. Be those things if they make you happy.

[He shurgs]

It's simple. You know better now, you're not consumed by it now, then you did before. You can fix what was wrong with you before.

[Its kind of scary, but Tooru can relate. The memories he has he still has a sense of dissonance. Like he's watching his past life. He still knows they're his, but there's distance.

And, well, the difference between Tooru Oikawa, Americana Cellist and Oikawa Tooru, Japanese volleyball player, were minimal, but he can tell that all his bad qualities were heightened when he came here.]

[psyvampexperiment]

If there was some way to go on being Sariel, being Kiernan MacLeod, and put Pride Records behind me, I'd embrace that in a heartbeat. I almost wonder, though, if I shouldn't go back to the world I left, in order to face my fate there: for the things I did... there were even more powerful creatures, the Guardians of the Dead - in a few words, angels of death or kindly reapers - who were ready to end my existence and justifiably.

[A pause, then he tilts his head to the right.]

But I'd rather continue to create than to let myself be destroyed. I think it's a better atonement, to keep creating and balance out the destruction I left behind me.

[worthlesspride]

Well, so long as you promise not to do that again I guess... I guess you could come to my world. There's nothing supernatural about it.

[To Oikawa's disappointment]

[psyvampexperiment]

Believe me, I don't intend to do anything like that again: for all intents and purposes, Kazutaka Muraki lives only as the memories in the head of Kiernan MacLeod. He might as well be a former life of which I have perfect memories. [Then with a bow, he adds,] If you'll have in your world, I'd be honored to live there.