THE PENTHOUSE Tiger is lying on his back, and the ceiling is spinning. His vision seems unfocused and shifting, like his eyes aren’t quite working right. He’s back in his room, he thinks, hazily. But nothing is the same anymore.
There’s a spiderwebbing crack across the gem on his belly, and it feels like that same crack must be going through his whole body – like he must be on the verge of splintering apart. Being back on his bed is more comfortable than any other position he’d been in during his imprisonment, but it doesn’t even really feel like it makes a difference, like being in a cage is just the natural way of things.
He wants to cry, but it’s like the urge and the function won’t connect. He feels like he’s underwater, like he isn’t breathing.
After what feels like a really long time, he finally gets up. All he’s wearing now is a tank-top and his boxers, and he is suddenly reminded of the presence of the patches of glowing fracture lines that have appeared across patches of his skin, as if mimicking the break in his gem. He ends up in front of his mirror – his eyes no longer have any pupil or iris, instead filled with cloudy pink fog and speckles of light. It almost looks like stars.
He’s broken, he thinks. He doesn’t know why, but that’s the word and concept that comes to mind. He isn’t working right. He’s been thoroughly wrecked. He’s incapable of contemplating how it’s going to get better.
Eventually, he makes it out into the hallway, but before he gets far he sinks down onto a random spot of floor, staring into space.
PRIDE HQ He ends up outside of his penthouse, at one of the common Pride HQ pool areas. He feels like he wants to be in water, for some reason, like this horrible state of being is something that has a chance of just washing off. He walks into the water in his boxers and tank top, not really thinking about how anyone might object.
And then he just finds himself standing there, alone in the pool, his arms wrapped around himself. The pink-glowing crack-lines refract across the water, lighting dim at this time of night. Everything seems so far away.
TIGER UNIVERSE | SYSTEM CRASH | OTA
Tiger is lying on his back, and the ceiling is spinning. His vision seems unfocused and shifting, like his eyes aren’t quite working right. He’s back in his room, he thinks, hazily. But nothing is the same anymore.
There’s a spiderwebbing crack across the gem on his belly, and it feels like that same crack must be going through his whole body – like he must be on the verge of splintering apart. Being back on his bed is more comfortable than any other position he’d been in during his imprisonment, but it doesn’t even really feel like it makes a difference, like being in a cage is just the natural way of things.
He wants to cry, but it’s like the urge and the function won’t connect. He feels like he’s underwater, like he isn’t breathing.
After what feels like a really long time, he finally gets up. All he’s wearing now is a tank-top and his boxers, and he is suddenly reminded of the presence of the patches of glowing fracture lines that have appeared across patches of his skin, as if mimicking the break in his gem. He ends up in front of his mirror – his eyes no longer have any pupil or iris, instead filled with cloudy pink fog and speckles of light. It almost looks like stars.
He’s broken, he thinks. He doesn’t know why, but that’s the word and concept that comes to mind. He isn’t working right. He’s been thoroughly wrecked. He’s incapable of contemplating how it’s going to get better.
Eventually, he makes it out into the hallway, but before he gets far he sinks down onto a random spot of floor, staring into space.
PRIDE HQ
He ends up outside of his penthouse, at one of the common Pride HQ pool areas. He feels like he wants to be in water, for some reason, like this horrible state of being is something that has a chance of just washing off. He walks into the water in his boxers and tank top, not really thinking about how anyone might object.
And then he just finds himself standing there, alone in the pool, his arms wrapped around himself. The pink-glowing crack-lines refract across the water, lighting dim at this time of night. Everything seems so far away.