#unrestraind

It's a strange thing, to look beyond the clouds and feel as though you're staring straight down the barrel of a gun. It holds you in place, ties you to the proverbial railroad tracks and gives you a 'choice'...though that choice ultimately results in the same outcome. Stay where you are, and die.

For Monika, it's not a literal death (at least not yet), but it remains death in all the ways that really matter. Her world, as she's come to understand it, is cyclical, and it exists for a single purpose. If it had been even a mite kinder, she would have never even realized that, pulled along on a puppeteer's strings until they were finally cut, far quicker than she would have had time to process.

...but she's had a lot of time to process, these days.

It's why she's so surprised, for a moment, when she hears the gentle murmurings of one her club members, snapping her back to reality...asking if she's okay. Naturally, the answer is no, but for Yuri? It could only ever be yes. After all, what would be the point in explaining?