Cutscene: Whatever You Imagine
Who: Yuuka Chiba
Where: Port Island, by the Shrine
When IC: Saturday, January 22, 2010
When OOC: 9/24/2010
Soundtrack Song: Whatever You Imagine - Wendy Norton
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"Whatever you imagine... can one day come to be..."
"There are dreams to awaken, roads to be taken-"
"Follow them and they will set you free..."
Standing in front of the stairs to the Shrine, Yuuka looks up at them on the cold January morning, as the wind picks up her long hair and makes it drift in the wind behind her as she tugs her warm black winter coat around her tighter, shuddering slightly as her short school skirt brushes the top of her thigh-high white socks and snow drifts over her black loafters. Around her neck she wears a pair of bright red headphones with tiny white bunny rabbits. They are plugged into a small MP3 player Yuuka holds in one hand. The song clicks on in the background, loud enough to be heard even over the gusts of wind, and Yuuka, leaning on the outside gate as she looks at the fortune area, and the small prayer section, lifts her soft soprano to join the song, a counterpoint to the alto melody line.
She turns around, back against the iron fence as one hand goes over her heart as she sings, loud enough for anyone walking by to hear, not caring for once if anyone thinks of her odd, or strange, or anything. She had changed the world around her once, and tried to repair it. All she can do now is enjoy what she has, while mourning that which was on both sides of the time-space continuim, she only looks to the future, to that world filled with treasure - treasures full of friendship and joy, and uncaring belief and trust in her, treasures full of the fact that she always seems to have someone to go back too - treasures of life and life itself, nothing more, nothing less.
"Whatever you imagine is where your heart can go."
"There are worlds filled with treasure,"
"Time with out measure, to learn whatever you may need to know..."
As she sings, she starts walking down the block, dancing along with the music only she can hear, dancing along with the cry of hundreds behind her, applauding for her, cheering for her, wanting her to succeed, but it's not even them that she sings for, or even really herself - instead people flitter through the edge of the crowd, focusing on each one. Hinata's t-shirt as Yuuka buries her face against it and sobs. The show of Shiori grabbing her wrist in the middle of a kitchen as theres' a clink of something metallic hitting the ground - Blaise and Hitoshi, both hugging her, both of them so familiar -- the cry of people trying to reach out and help her - the thought of every single one of them coming back time and time again to help repair what she's broken --
Can she ever truly repay every debt she owes to this world? Can she truly repay every single shoulder she's cried on, every single adult and older student who has done everything to try to keep her on the right path? Akatsuki? The oft-seen behind the scenes Mitsuru and Akihiko? Even Shinjiro and Ran, who barely know her? Slim hands come up to cup the headphones briefly as she thinks of everyone, the voices whirling into a melody of voices that create a background to the ever-present song that beats in her ears. It's like hearing her personae beat at her, each one so insistent, each one so different - but is any of them truly different, is any of them truly unique? There's a question about masks, and Yuuka isn't sure about masks anymore, only the fact that she plans on breaking hers.
"Imagine... and you and I can fly past the sun..."
"And leave all our doubts and fears behind us.
"You see, that's what just can happen, when you look inside your mind..."
"There's no limit to the wonders you can find!"
Yuuka whirls down the block, seeing the five-story SEES dorm in the distance, stopping as her heart beats erratically, pulse fluttering in her throat as she stares at the red-bricked building, as she listens to the beat of the song as it fades into a musical bridge, as she waits for herself to step forward. She can only do what she wishes, she can only do what she believes she can, she can only do what, she can, in her new story, in the timeline that is repairing iteslf, to repair what she herself has done... the question is, can she step out of the circle of Hell she has created, that she explored, to fix everything that she has broken?
Reality shatters around her, as her emerald eyes close, wincing in pain. She has to stop second-guessing herself, doesn't she? She has to stop breaking what wasn't broken, she has got to stop looking at others, and look only at herself for the ever-so-elusive answers, she only has to realize that deep within the veritable, hardy soul she has in herself - the one that is so painful, the one whose temper cannot contain the feeling of her emotions, the one who is so changed now, she only has to look there... and imagine that she can change the world, but yet not change it - for it is only she herself that she changes at this point. She steps forward.
"Whatever you imagine! Can make your life-brand new..."
"There are miracles waiting, so keep concentrating,
"And I promise that if you do..."
Yuuka finally stops in front of the SEES dorm, looking at the heavy pair of oak doors, looking at the key card slide, and, pawing through her small side backpack, looking at all of the books from Gekkoukan High School, looking at the ever-special key card as she pulls it out and clutches it in one slim hand. She looks up at the brown doors, and tears spring up in her bright emerald eyes, and she wipes up at them as her voice wobbles on the final part, the bridge of the song, the powerful point where one realizes what they must do - to imagine. She takes a deep breath, then steps forward again.
As she steps into the quiet part of the dorms, she sings the last line softly, moving to the counter where the pen scratches on the paperwork to mark that she's back from her trip - not that it was much of a trip, based on the times given as entering and exiting. However, Yuuka realizes, staring at the paper, it's not about the time that was spent realizing it, it is going to be about the time fixing it. With a smile, she heads up the stairs to the rest of her night, and to the future that she has, to the future where she can be what she can be - no matter what anyone says, no matter what anyone thinks - it's her world, now, time to fix it...
As the song fades, Yuuka presses the off button, and the song turns off as her world plays on...
"Whatever you imagine can come true..."
Whatever You Imagine
