[Video] Memory Leak

[fullofthorns]

[ Roze laughs, rolling onto her back and hanging her head off the foot of her bed, holding the D-T up as she talks to Miwako, bare feet propped on Kotemon who is sleeping across her bed, snoring softly. ]

Oh my god, Shortcake, he's so friggin' ripped. I'm not even kidding. Hnn. And he's totally packing. I mean weapons of mass destruction. This guy belongs in a centerfold. Oh, man. I can't wait to fight him. I really, really can't wait. Its a shame he's sick and all but picking on him has been fun. You know how men turn into total babies when they get sick? Yeah he's not much different. But at least he listens pretty well. He should be better today or tomorrow. I was gonna challenge him, ut there's this mission thing coming up and I wanna make some money, plus I kinda hope he comes at me first. I don't like passive guys and I'm gonna be real disappointed when he turns out to be some limp-wristed--

[ The screen cuts Roze's conversation off and fills terminals all across the city, the private D-T chat turning into an open broadcast, picture changing to a livingroom in disarray with broken picture frames, a toppled three-shelf bookstand, a shattered tea cup. Roze stands tall and defiant in the middle of the room staring down another equally Amazonian woman. While Roze is dressed in current fashion with tight jeans, a black tank-top and a loose tee over it, the other woman is clothed in a more traditionally inspired outfit - not quite a kimono, not quite a top and hakama, just something inbetween. A boy only Roze's age or younger stands nearby, dark eyes darting nervously between the two women. Roze, Roze's mom, and Roze's dad. ]

This is BULLSHIT! [ Roze shouts, her voice hoarse, likely having already been screaming for some time. ]

Don't talk to your mother like that!

You shut up. You shut right the fuck up. You don't get to tell me what to do. You don't get to speak to me. Don't even look at me.

That's your father you're talking to!

Oh piss off, mom! I can't believe you went along with this! I can't believe you fuckin' lied to me this whole time!

What were we supposed to tell you, Roze? How were we supposed to tell you? You were children together! You grew up together!

It doesn't matter! It doesn't matter how difficult it was for you or whether or not I would have understood! You should have told me instead of lying about it! Or you shouldn't have come back at all!

ROZE!

No. No Sakura, she's right. I shouldn't have kept it from her. At least not for as long as we did. She had a right to know--

You're damned right I did! You son of a bitch, you've just sat there manipulating my whole life! You've moved everything around like pieces on a goddamned board game, you bastard!

Roze, you have to believe me, it was for your own good! We thought we were doing what was best for you!

The hell you were! You were doing what was best for you! Crowbarring me into this fuckin' position I never wanted to be in in the first place!

[ Roze screamed, hands going to the sides of her head in frustration before she whirled around and kicked the living room table. The wood splintered, a dark crack racing across the lacquered surface. More importantly the skin on Roze's bare foot was split and bleeding, the trickle pooling crimson on the hardwood floor. She stared down at the cut, shoulders rising and falling with great breaths of barely contained rage. Silence stretched between the three for a long time, her father shifting his weight uncomfortably, her mother scowling angrily. Eventually she uttered a bitter laugh that was barely more than a cough. ]

So what. So I don't even get a choice?

[ Her mother laughed nastily in reply, propping a fist on her hip. ]

Don't act like you didn't know. You're being disgustingly childish, petty and selfish right now. You've known your whole life that this is what you were training for. What was expected of you. What makes you think you're any better or more important than your father or I? Hm? You ungrateful little bi--

SAKURA!

[ Roze's mother stiffens and turns, eyes wide with surprise as she looks at the boy who suddenly shouted, voice pained and authoritative. ]

She's right! This isn't fair. It never was. Your family always pressed for the children to follow their footsteps, but they should be allowed to choose, Sakura. And...how dare you...

What?

How dare you. How dare you ever insinuate that your daughter - our daughter - isn't more important than you, or I or the whole damned world?

She's jus--

Just nothing! You have a child, that child always comes before you! Before you or anyone else or any damned tradition!

That tradition is everything! Its what stands between the survival of humanity and the brink of war!

Should our children be responsible for it? Should our children have to suffer for what everyone else should be held accountable for? We're dooming her to a thankless life!

You're only saying any of this because you've spent so much time as a human child now. You've had the luxury of living with a family that doesn't know, that's completely ignorant of the real threat.

I'm saying this because its true.

Shut up. Just shut up, both of you. Don't pretend to suddenly care. You don't get to have a sudden change of heart. You've had seventeen fuckin' years to come clean about this, to change it and make it better.

[ Roze curses, lifting her foot to check the damage. Bruising. Broken toe, probably. Shaking her head, she flicks her hair to the side and glares hatefully at her parents. ]

You can't force me to do this. You don't get to tell me I have to do this.

Roze, think about what you're saying. You've got to listen--

NO! No I won't listen! You die and come back, spend my whole life following me around and pretending to be my friend instead of my father, you chase off everyone that ever wanted to get close to me, you purposely isolated me! And you two want me to listen? To see it from your perspective? SEE IT FROM MY FUCKING PERSPECTIVE! I want to live my life! I want to know people! I want to have friends!

You can have friends, Roz--

NO I CAN'T! I'm a freak in case you haven't noticed! I'm too human to be a demon, I'm too demon to be a human! My imaginary friends are real and every human kid I ever got close to either grew up and bullied me or tried to be more and got chased off my your fuckin' sleazy ass tricks! You stupid mother-fucker, you pretended! All this time you acted like we were so close and kept me thinking I would be better off with a guy like you than any of the others who "couldn't really understand me" and this whole fuckin' time you were my FATHER! You people are fuckin' mental! You're out of your minds if you think I would ever listen to another fuckin' word out of your fuckin' mouths!

[ She wheels around, padding across the floor and leaving wet red prints as she grabs her katana, her coat and heads for her shoes. ]

Where do you think you're going?

Anywhere but here.

I don't think so. We're not through here.

Oh, yes we are. We are so done here.

Sakura, let her go.

Another six months and none of this matters anyways. You'll come to your senses and you'll be back.

You know what...

[ Roze stops at the door, licking her lips and laughing softly as she zips up her boots and looks over shoulder. ]

You better hope I don't. You best hope that I don't come home, that I don't become a Guardian, because you know what? I'm better than both of you. You're older and slower, and you're diminished and weaker. And I hate your precious humans.

Roze...

I hate them. I hate them so much it makes me sick. All those years you told me to just let them push me around, just let them shove me down and kick me. You yelled at me for defending myself or fighting back. All those years you made me behave like a cringing dog around these fucking ingrates, and now you tell me I'm supposed to protect them? I'm supposed to take care of them? You're out of your fuckin' minds. I will never stand up for people who disrespected and shit on me my whole life. I will never accept that I have to lead a life of lies and secrets just because of some bullshit traditions. If I come back, it won't be for them. It won't be for humanity. It'll be for the demons and everyone else.

[ She shoulders her weapon, pulling open the door and casting one more look full of loathing over her shoulder, adding a parting shot before slamming the door closed behind her. ]

Who stands up for the demons' rights?


=====================


[ The screen flickers briefly, the image of Roze's parents looking helplessly at each other before breaking out into an argument being replaced with Roze's staring face, white as a sheet. Lips puckered in an "o" and greens eyes wide, she looks left, right, then down before clearing her throat. ]

Ah...well...that...was...uh....*sniff*...That was...

Awkward?

[ She looks to her side where Kotemon sat, woken up by all the shouting on the terminal. ]

Oh God...

[ She groans, dropping her face into her bedding and screaming into the mattress. ]