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GRIEF IS HER BEST FRIEND.

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But who was this that they spoke of, who was it that the fairies were bringing Desiree to meet? All she could be led to believe was that she was the one, but how, as she was still in full control of her physique? As the Florges carried Desiree up the royal steps she placed the petals of the herba mystica in her mouth and chewed, the saltiness of tears meeting their crunch. In a world devoid of color where they traversed, the dilapidation of the castle kissing the ruination of once pines and blooms, all was strange. Could this have been the end of the world, prospering long after the impact of a colossal meteor?[break][break]

The onlooking, rotten fairies trilled in joy as they looked up from the ashen loam, the leaves of the Florges pushing the door to the chambers open. Shattered imagery of everyone she ever knew lined the walls, coated in anomalies of wilted roses and protrusions of crystalline imbued with an overwhelming feeling of sadness. In the center of the room stood a woman clad in a deep rose and the darkest of blacks, hair flowing in the smoggy wind that crept through the slits in the walls. Desiree could only gasp when she saw her, just as bewildered as she was dumbfounded in dismay.[break][break]

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"Grief is her best friend."[break][break]

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"Welcome to the future, Desiree. The future in which grief overcame your soul, casting you into complete, total darkness," the woman said softly, turning to face her, ".. I'm that version of perfection you desperately seek, greater, darker. I no longer feel the joy I once felt, the joy we felt. I cast out all of that so my roses could grow and wilt, just as I have." Standing in front of Desiree was explicitly another version of herself, exquisitely proven without a blur in her gaze in the slightest. There was power in her bitterness, that which resonated with the darkened crystals sprawling from cataclysms in the floor.[break][break]

It was as if with each word that drifted from her blackened lips, there was more and more of a mental tug as if there was an invisible shackle. A manifestation of a true toxic chain, begging her to come closer. "You're not what I wish to become, no," Desiree's words were sporadic with her heavy breathing, "I want to be filled with love, not despair!" A genuine wish, for above all else she wanted to live with the very concept of love tucked within her heart, prosperous. But grief cast the veil over her eyes and her heart, for she felt she could never live the life she once lived, a sweet, innocent woman with all the dreams in the world. Her mistakes and cruel fate forbid her from it, for it was all too cruel, all too vicious.[break][break]

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"Yet we keep grieving, we let it consume us." The other woman said, stirring the smoke with the tip of her finger. "You have all the resources to get what you seek, yet you don't! All because you're unable to accept that the world is cruel, the world will never truly be on your side. Nature is unforgiving, Desiree, as you can surely tell by the scenery." Rocks fell from the roof of the palace, hitting the ground and releasing clouds of debris and ancient mushroom spores. "If you forgive yourself, though.. you'll become just like me."[break][break]

Spitting at her words, Desiree initially expressed anger in the reddening of her cheeks, though it faded into pure disbelief. "You are lying, you have to be! If I forgive myself for everything and turn that leaf, I can become everything. I just have to accept that." Desiree said, shock manifesting once she realized what she brought herself to speak aloud. She could see that the other woman was displeased at the thought just as she was with the results; in the chambers small, petite mushrooms began to grow, glistening as they released their spores. It was as if she could realize how dumb she had been all this time, unwilling to accept the past for what it was. It was the only thing stopping her from being filled with the joy she sought. It was her at her core, not the mistakes, not what had unfortunately transpired with her father.[break][break]

"Is this.. my mind?" Desiree asked, goosebumps rising upon her skin. At the realization, the woman scoffed, but the toxic chain exposed itself, connecting the two by the ankles- but the grudges ran deeply, prospering like the rot. Raising her hand outward, withered Florges joined the alternate, mental version of herself at her side and began to channel violent energies. A BLACK HOLE ECLIPSE funneled through the smog toward the real pinkette, endlessly firing from the wretched fairy's arms.[break][break]

But the three Florges beside Desiree stood in front of her, collectively manifesting an ethereal shield to cast the darkened effects aside with ample effort. To see such a thing unfold before her eyes, to truly the battle that she had been fighting and losing every day and night.. oh, how much she wished to restore the slate. She had not been able to truly realize, to truly acknowledge that her mind was the one thing stopping her from allowing it to flourish. All she had to do was banish the self-saboteur that ripped and tore at her from the inside.[break][break]

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By seeing that personified, she was able to acknowledge just how badly she wished to do just that. Brightness wouldn't be able to come in the future until it would be bestowed upon her present and past. It all made sense.[break][break]

The mushrooms continued to grow from the ashen stone, turning the dead flora at her feet into prospering, glowing herba mystica.

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"We have always had that survival instinct when times turn dark."[break][break]

"But why now?"

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"You want me to leave, now?"[break][break]

"You hate me, when I've always been there for you?"

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"We spent so much time together.."[break][break]

"You get that sweet pity from me."

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"You use me to your benefit."[break][break]

"You justify yourself with me."

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"You use me to play a victim."[break][break]

"You let me plant these seeds."

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"And now you wish to uproot them?"[break][break]

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"We met that morning after I used for the first time, you never left me alone after that," Desiree said softly, holding her hand out to reinforce the shield granted by the Florges. "And you built your castle the morning after we killed father. I'm sick of you being here, allowing the world to rot." It had been three years since her vibrant wish for her reality to turn tainted by the existence of her grief, and six months since it had flourished like a rotting flower; six months of being unable to refute the grim veil, unable to stand up against it. As the mushroom caps rose from the ashen stone and dilapidated flora the other woman felt agony, a threat that she had yet to face. All the words that had been given to her by those she loved, all those words of reassurance, finally crept into her soul. Truly crept, and it felt warm.[break][break]

Desiree finally believed while meeting the gaze of the other woman, the personification of the grim veil, that the lifestyle she dreamed of taking in her future could not coexist with the planted seeds of grief. "You are not me, you're a close friend who feeds me nothing but lies and delusions! You make me mask, you stop me from becoming who I wish to be," she lashed out at the other woman but with grace, ".. this is a toxic relationship.. you're toxic, and to say you've always been there for me? You're fake. It's YOU, that's the difference. We are not meant to coexist." The feeling that crept in alongside those words of remembrance was that of true power, warm chills cutting through the skies as deceased trees sprouted new blooms. A new Blooms, one that brought the other woman to seethe.[break][break]

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"Then I'll say what Thomas Benoit and I wished we could tell them," Desiree said, ".. fuck them all. And tell them to learn how to love, how to experience empathy in the fucked up world we live in." As she spoke the mushrooms wound together and combined their spores to create two giant Shiinotic, light outpouring from their mushroom caps like sparkles from streetlights. So bright, they could cut through the darkness of the eclipse that shone from the hands of the wretched other woman. She wailed as they consumed her, the laws of the mental hellscape rewriting themselves one by one; the ruination was replaced with fields of bright flora stretching into cascades of pink waterfalls until none of the blight was left, leaving the body of the other woman lifeless in the fruitful seeds of love.[break][break]

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The birds chirped as the sea of once-rotted Florges crept up the repaired stairway into the chateau, shed of all their toxic influences. Crackling through the ribs of the other woman was a mirror image of Desiree as she was now; a white dress glimmering with petals, stains of tears lining her tattooed cheeks. There was a certain feeling between the two that did not need words, as the two understood everything about one another simply by peering into each other's eyes. Love was present as the two walked toward one another and embraced in a hug, casting away the fragments of the toxic chain that once connected the bodies of the dull one and the bright one. The grim veil was torn, cast out by the brightness of the fairies and the sprouts of love.[break][break]

She believed every word, every thought that was mutually understood between the two. Feeling the squeeze of the hug against their skin, the two melded into one another until it was just her, just Desiree, standing over the corpse of the other woman; she was finally free from the shackle, and her mind finally was allowed to rest. To heal.[break][break]

The mental landscape wisped into fragmentals into a void of petals and bright roses, drowning in the clouds of dew. There was no need to try to be perfect anymore, there was no need to lament the past; all she needed was a glimmer of hope for what the future had in store for her, and she finally felt it, allowing her to truly live in the present. Reality was beginning to bounce back in her vision, each hue of pink melding together, guiding her back to the world that existed beyond her mind's walls.[break][break]

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The colors of her mindscape melded until they released visions of hazy eyesight, blocked by the existence of what felt like soft, squishy rubble weighing down her body. Beneath her and through the cracks Desiree could see a never-ending expanse of shattered buildings engulfed by a sea of wisping pink puddles; from within them sprouted familiar seeds of darkness, winding upward with rot and turmoil. It was all so heavy to witness, heavy to feel. She splashed within the rose water as she desperately tried to claw herself from the bounds that encased her body, glowing appendages of her Shiinotic grabbed her fingers and pulled. Pained by the force and by bloody etches against her wrists and neck, after seconds turned to minutes she eventually had been released from the ruins, turning to face the clump that held her down while she was in the once hellscape her mind had turned.[break][break]

Slateport had been taken by the effects of what was said to be the ruination, a grim veil of blight pushing through its shattered streets. "No," she said as a tear trickled down her cheek, ".. we did nothing, why?" Desiree wanted to plead with the world that existed in the future, though there was no context in her mind other than the rumors of what would come upon the region, ruin. The pile of ruin that held her down was none other than four of those that had come upon her heart, those she trusted above all else. All within their personal mental hellscapes fighting, twitching as decadent magenta toxic chains retained their arms and necks. Beside them was one that had cracked, with what appeared to have been wretched floral designs winding up its circular notions.[break][break]

It made her feel a prospering pit within her stomach, tears winding to splash in the sea of pink that enveloped her ankles. "Please, someone.. help! Someone, somewhere.. please," she hyperventilated, moving to rest her hands on the unconscious Thomas Benoit's stomach in an attempt to perform the Heimlich. All the time he spent helping her prepare for such things as what they were now set to experience.. she couldn't imagine a world where this was possible, but it felt so realistic she could no longer remember that this was all, in the end, ethereal timeline shenanigans. She haphazardly lifted his body to pull him off all the others, numbness flickering within the struggle of her muscles to untangle the knots of the four chains. The chains that enveloped the four who helped her navigate her treacherous past, each in their beautiful ways.[break][break]

"Break free, please, please god," her heavy breathing accompanied her shakiness as she pulled the chains to unravel their ties, stumbling to fall next to the shackled Yuina Higashi, Genevieve Cromwell, and Michael Navidson. As she picked herself up and continued to try to lay them out side by side, the guilt that had shattered her rosy toxic chain began to take root once more; accompanied by the feeling of survivor's guilt was the feeling of complete dread, as in her eyes, she would have taken the place of any of them in a heartbeat. Why did it have to be her, when in her heart she felt she had warranted the fate to succumb to the chains more than all the rest? To see them like this.. it was all too much, a pain that she had never experienced in the fucked up thing she called her life. Worse than the use and rebuking of the needle, worse than the night her father sunk the blade into her skin fourteen times.[break][break]

Once she had been unable to untangle their shackles and bodies, her tears turned to waterfalls as she interlocked their hands with one another and collapsed in between Thomas Benoit and Yuina Higashi. Curling into a ball as she held onto their arms, the waves of the pink sea splashed against the numbness in her cheeks. The liberation of her mind felt powerful, but now she felt just so powerless. But their demons were theirs to face and theirs alone, no matter how badly she wished to take them all on their behalf; all she could do was wait beside them, weeping, longing for love to prevail. Though, she was slowly losing hope- how could love prevail in a world so sick, where sadness was on the other side of the coin, always turning?

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Tears fell from her eyes onto the cheeks of those that she loved, curled up beside them as they faced their ethereal battles under the influence of the toxic chain. Yet, out of the corner of her eyes she could see it- in the skies danced what appeared to be a demon, one of those presumed to sew the discordance that fell upon the region in the name of ruin. It laughed as it pranced through the skies, releasing its onlooking eyes in the form of 'darkened angels', souls capsized by its unholy prowess. The nameless shatterer of buildings and hearts, an assumption made due to its existence spawning the reversal of that which Desiree wished for the world to endure. A juxtaposition of love.[break][break]

"Free them..! Release them from the chains," she pleaded to the skies, meeting her gaze with the thousand eyes that trickled across the demon's skin, ".. they don't deserve it, they never will.. their hearts are full of love, no matter what happens. Their intentions are genuine, they see the world and wish for it to become a better place..!"[break][break]

An echoing cackle emanated through the drowned streets of pink and dilapidated stone, granting another two angels of darkness the ability to unfurl from the ruffles of the demon's skirt. The two's descent was rapid, weaving hatred in the cosmic energies that encompassed their soulless, hivemind-bound bodies. Perching themselves on a shattered window-pane encased in now rotted mangala leaves, they tapped their melding fingers against their cheeks in curiosity and judgment.[break][break]

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"You shouldn't have been able to get free."[break][break]

"Everyone has their sins they must face judgment for."

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"How did you.. not succumb to them..?[break][break]

"I mean.. you should have seen the mind fight all the elites had!"

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"None of them made it~"[break][break]

"Your friends are next~!"

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"Since you got out.."[break][break]

"You deserve a blessing, eventually."

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"Not now.. but,"[break][break]

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"One of us~!"[break][break]

"One of us, but stronger~!"

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The anger brought by their words, mixed with the sorrow already flourishing in her heart like a million seeds of honeysuckle, made it so Desiree could not dissuade their words by calling them liars. She could not tell them that those fears they presented had already crossed her mind as she wept; it would only foster strength in whatever otherworldly powers that had made it into their bodies. Tugging at the pinkette as she unfurled from the ball she curled up into, the Shiinotic beside her lifted the chains bounding her friends and pointed in the direction of the southeast. The chains stretched through the waters through the streets in that direction, almost as if there was a source for it. Disconnected from the entity that danced in the clouds, present on the ground.[break][break]

Picking herself up and shakily giving those she cared about kisses on their foreheads, she stumbled in an overwhelmed fashion as she picked up the chain connected to Thomas Benoit's neck and used it to slowly guide her through the streets. She wished to find it- to do whatever it took to free them from the wretched fates that could have fallen over them if they were not successful like she was. The chains knotted together, connecting the four that she had just begun to leave behind. "I'll free all of you," she said, sniffling, ".. it'll all be over soon. We'll all be okay."[break][break]

All she wanted was to find solace in a response from them, to not be alone. Yet, the angels of the demon followed with fluttering dances through the water, kicking up pink dewdrops as they skidded beside her. It brought the mushroom pokemon to sigh, forming a triangle around the idol to protect her if they were to become hostile.[break][break]

"You're wasting your time..!"[break][break]

"Don't follow the chains..!"

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"You're gonna dieee~!"[break][break]

"Hehe..~!"

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Even within her emotional state of the pits, she could sense the tinge of worry present within the voices. So she ignored them; they sulked behind her as she walked through the streets, wading through the pink waters, all the way to a portal. A rift, one that looked ever so familiar; on the other side was a place that appeared similar to the Ultra Deep Sea, where the chains seemed to have erupted from. Without hesitation, she stepped through.

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GRIEF HAS AMBITIONS.

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What existed beyond the rift was a colossal chamber with a beating heart in the center, that from which the decorated chains sprouted- though, the chains melded together to form one, pierced by an unholy halo that strung around them like a washer on a bolt. She did not know what to make of the fleshy scenery or the gale that whipped out from the other side of the transparent walls, those which shone outward brilliant whispers of the cosmos and its stellar landscape. It seemed as if she was inside the belly of a demonic entity, that which birthed projections and smaller versions of itself in a line down to the region. As if it were nesting dolls without a twist opening.[break][break]

Perhaps this was her conscious displaying fears of what existed in the Ultra Deep Sea, those claims her dear friend told her of a god having conquered its wretched activities and manifestations. It brought pained fear painted pink in her chest to imagine all of that could be real. Slowly making her way to where the chains formed into a single string, she tried to pull on it to no avail; of course, they would be too difficult to break, ultimately too strong to saw. With each tug, she manifested it would release, but as her strength ventured out of her muscles and into the air, she was beginning to lose hope.[break][break]

"Please break," she said as she pulled, the halo turning to perceive her with sprouted eyes, ".. snap. You can't hold up forever.."[break][break]

It caused her to naturally become frustrated, and pained, ultimately wishing to secure love by allowing the pulse to return to those she loved above all. She wanted to tear this place from the bottom up; it was her ultimate goal, to bring ruin to those that wished to bestow grief onto the world. Specifically this- but love was no longer an option, for ethereal concepts as these needed counters. A scream manifested from her heart, gut-endowed, bringing the rift to the other side to fluctuate. To her surprise, an army had amassed under her control in this current time. Yet, nothing made sense, how could it?[break][break]

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One by one, Shiinotic and their smaller Morelull counterparts plopped into the portal and made their advance. It felt correct, being surrounded by the creatures she knew more than any other of the forest; there had to be thousands, weaving vine branches to stand on the edges of the walls and look out to the edge of the universe. Their emergence brought a plan, one that at the moment seemed like the only solution. They seemed to understand her wishes without question, too- to illuminate the walls and the core with thousands of DAZZLING GLEAMS all at once, to cast away all the darkness that lurked within.[break][break]

And that they would; channeling the illuminant energies within their mushroom caps they shone outward, imbuing the entire chamber with light the likes of which the pinkette had never seen. She gasped as the floor began to tremble, melting its physicality and slowly reducing it, alongside the chains and everything that had once existed in the chamber to stardust. The chain of projections down to the ruins of Slateport poofed one by one, and soon she and the thousands of mushrooms were released into the cosmos- and the demon's sole remnant, the darkened halo. She smiled as they slowly fell toward the portal, hugging the largest Shiinotic of them all with all the love in the world.[break][break]

It was freeing- and deep down she knew, with the chains destroyed, all of her loves were okay. They had to be free now. A tear fell from her eyes and released into the stars as she imagined it, leaving with them and bringing love into the drained world once more.[break][break]

But she wasn't clever enough. The darkened halo fell with the gravity pulling them back into the portal, interlocking around her neck. It was the consciousness of this entity, tightening as it took her vision piece by piece. It consumed her, draining her so quickly she had no choice but to sit back and watch. Everything had been taken in seconds.[break][break]

"Taking the consciousness of my vessel is something that lacks glamour, wouldn't you say? We will exist as one. Just as I have become you, you will become me. I will complete the cycle for you."[break][break]

The portal leading to the destructed world brought her to the other side, where she fell to her knees in the rubble. Eyes closed as she listened to the four, she and it both could sense that they had been freed from their virulent shackles- they looked at her and shared their sincerities and pleasantries, but she could not bring herself to move or speak. Not yet, it would not let her. It had to think of the perfect thing to say, pushing Desiree into the corner as it took control.[break][break]

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The universe melded until she was all the way back in her bed, stained glass windows overlooking the forests of Fortree. Demons were left in the place where she had met them, the grim veil was torn with the essence of forgiveness and a wish to prevent. Lumine, her partner mushroom, walked up to nestle her side with its illuminant cap; yet all she could feel was the lack of the darkened halo around her neck, for it had never existed here, bringing that reddening sensation. Despite how real it felt, all of it was simply a dream. Unless it was more.[break][break]

If that were to depict a potential fate, she wished to turn against the turning of time in that direction. She had something to prove, now; a motivation to never have to bear it, to slice the rotting blossom in half and supplant an illuminant one in its place. To secure the concept of love in a bleak universe, she needed to act accordingly.[break][break]

Alongside the training she endured, she wished that gathering more and more Shiinotic could suffice. But in the end, what could suffice, being the ethereal threats that resided within the vast cosmos?[break][break]

It brought her to cry tears that could seemingly never stop, the grief of killing her father and all her other previous mistakes cast out by cosmic fear. Wherever it was that she had traveled through the thrusting into the rings, she never wished to see it. She never wanted to see it. It was terrifying.[break][break]

Love needed to be preserved in the cosmos, but how, when grief seemed to be its closest friend?

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