The Difference Between Us
Premonition
White lilies stretched across the plains indefinitely, the tuft of grass beneath to some would practically be considered non existent. A slow rain of sakura petals danced as it descended, melting away as it became naked to the eye amongst the terrain, and in the midst of it all; laid a heavily wounded human, gritting her teeth as she clutched the massive wound on her stomach, and not so far in front of her stood the infamous yōkai who brought her here in the first place.
She knew behind that fan obscuring that yōkai's face was a massive devilish grin; this had entertaining for the yōkai and that fact sickened her in the stomach, and somehow that feeling overpowered the pain- a thought of possible adrenaline brushes past her, but she shakes it off almost immediately.
"It's a shame things have to end here," The yōkai spoke with that fake kind, sweet, motherly tone she has been all too familiar with at this point, "You have been my favorite Gappy."
That term sent shivers down her spine regardless of the countless times she heard it prior. "I'm… not your damn playtoy!" She managed to say beneath a breath, but it wouldn't matter, the yōkai would pick up on it regardless- heightened senses or something, she somehow managed to remember that detail, but it's not surprising considering; in front of her barely was human, despite its appearance saying otherwise. "None of us Outsiders were meant to be in the first place, Yukari."
"Aw, don't be such a party pooper~" Yukari sung whilst clapping the fan closed, "You understand though, the residents here need this to thrive."
"Yeah." Feet wobbled as she struggles to stand tall, "But you and me both know that you don't need people from the outside world to create incidents."
"I hate that awareness of yours," a massive black void started to tear open next to the yōkai, another thing the human was familiar with. "But it's also what I love most from my dear favourite."
What was faint sounds of train horns grew louder, and after a beat or two a light began to brighten in front of her, the earth begins to tremble and she loses her footing again. From that void a Metro train emerged and approached her at an alarming speed, horns were blaring now and for some reason Eurobeat music companies it, and it didn't help that the front carriage was coming at her at an odd angle, like the front wheels where connected to the rail next over.
~ Speed, speed lover, games not over ~
She didn't dare to question it nor think about it; if under different circumstances, maybe she would've.
"Sayonara, my favorite Gappy."
~ Hot glitters on the track ~
She hated that time felt ridiculously slow every second death was creeping up. If she had to be completely honest; she'd rather it be quick and painless. This just reminds her of the countless dreams in which running away never exists, because it's always slow and she gets caught regardless of how hard she tried to hide.
~ Speed, speed lover, countdowns over ~
But...maybe it was just a dumb dream and she'd wake up with a jolt upon impact.
She would've loved that.
~ Running to win or die~
To be back home.
To be in her room.
…
She closes her eyes and waited.
*record scratch*
*freeze frame*
Woah, woah. Slow down for a moment. Hey, you see that girl, yeah? Looks like she hit rock bottom real hard. Well… believe it or not, but that little shit over there is actually me. Now I bet you're probably wondering how I got myself into this bullshit situation...
Well it's kind of a long story but I'll try to keep it short. It all started in the spring of 201X…
[AN]
It feels good to be back! ...Kinda.
This is kinda my contribution to April Fools, but considering this is also a project I've been working on a while, it's also not my contribution to April Fools, haha.
Anyway before this story gets actually started, I wanted to explain myself a bit because there's a bit of a backstory behind the creation of this fic. Feel free to scroll past and continue to the next chapter (assuming it's up by the time you're reading this) I'll give you a TL:DR.
[TL:DR]
Welcome to The Difference Between Us, this is a pseudo satire and a dark Touhou x Persona 4 fic inspired by Walfas series "Diamond In The Rough". Like this stories inspiration; this fic aims to make fun of self-insert / OC fic cliches, take the piss out of my own story (AKA; the original version of this story), and attempt to tell a "compelling" story all at the same time. While this is categorised as "humour" I already recognise that this stories "humour" will have mixed reactions of some going to love it or hate it. Keep in mind this is M rated and this story will throw a lot curve balls but also shitpost the next.
I advise those that are easily disturbed or sensitive to darker themes (suicide/suicidal thoughts, self-harm, death, gore, depression, dysfunctional relationships/friendship, etc) to not read this story any further, especially since this fic will both a) make light of and b) be handled poorly regarding the darker themes on some occasion.
TL:DR over, detailed explanation more about the stories origins and about the story itself;
So you might've noticed I said "the original version of this story", circa 2014-2015, my ex and myself wrote an incomplete Touhou x Persona 4 story, we wrote it on a whim and each wrote a version under our perspective, mine version somehow spanned 71 pages while my ex's version spanned 33; his writing style was a bit more simple and straight forward while I tried to channel my inner author skills. The result was to put it simply; a steaming pile of trash. Poor pacing, plot holes left and right, things go unexplained and it was generally a mess, but it was for fun so we didn't take it seriously for the most part and had a enjoyable experience regardless.
And yes; I got the okay from said ex to do this while still including him in the story.
Enter "The Difference Between Us", not the first rework iteration of the story, if I had to shamelessly admit. After revisiting Diamond In The Rough again, I decided to pick up the story and attempt to fix it, except this time I reworked a lot of things. Of course you wouldn't know what I've changed, but maybe I'll explain them in future chapters, or maybe one day I'll upload the original version so everyone can get a kick out of it. As a word for warning; like the original this story will go back and forth between our two protagonists Mary and Lee each chapter. Odds are Mary's, evens are Lee's. They are also written in a similar nature to the originals to emulate the difference between our old writing styles.
This iteration is more satirical/parody like compared to the original. While it is M rated, contains generic mature stuff like language, gore/violence and the various dark themes, to quote Diamond In The Rough; "However, what I really want to warn you about is that this story has something worse: it's going to make you uncomfortable as hell. I wrote it to drive the audience up a wall: characters will make deliberately dumb and self-destructive decisions, characters will miss their chance for salvation, and you will question what's really canon and what I'm just making up, just to screw with you."
In this fic I hope to achieve the same Diamond In The Rough did to some extent, to add to this, things will be written oddly; especially considering the theme of the incident in Touhou I've whipped up. There will be a lot of confusion.
Regardless I hope you enjoy your time with this shit fest of a story as I did writing it.