BGM: "World Domination How-To" composed by Neru, sung by Rin and Len.
Wishes for Moss
asterisks
The paper is covered with smudges and scratched-out letters and splattered stars of ink from a suddenly broken pen. Slowly and deliberately, too close to quit now, the ghost writes her name.
ravage
She collapses when the instability encroaches on vital organs, red and yellow mixed with green all spilling from her abdomen. She can only hope that it will stop before it reaches her lungs this time.
freehand
The room is small, smooth white walls with all the corners filled in. Dani tears it down; she walks away with red brick dust streaked in her white hair.
clownish
Dani turns cartwheels, backflips, any acrobatics she can manage without knocking some delicate part loose. The crowd is clapping, and a few people throw coins – thwup, thwup, clink – into her hat.
selectors
The building is condemned, has been for years. For however many days she can keep it, it's home sweet home.
knapsacks
She trades stolen chocolate bars for clean bandages, the bandages for barely-worn shoes, the shoes for a bottle of something expensively alcoholic, the liquor for cash, and the money for a backpack from the army surplus store. No one's taking her stuff while she can help it.
Ganges
There is a line on a map, and there are legends and mysteries. Then there are the facts, and she replaces the encyclopedia on the shelf.
derisory
She does her best to clean the dirt and blood from her shirt. The stones were annoying, but the confirmation of his words stings worse than salt in an open wound.
catchwords
She sits up at night and listens to late-night news programs on the radio. They drop his name in the middle of a joke about Bill Gates being last century's news, and she wrenches the dial to another channel.
debugger
It looks like her best bet for tonight is this cruddy motel uncomfortably close to his city. Just in case, she checks the room for robotic cockroaches before she goes to sleep.
irrefutable
There is a girl, there is an alley, and there is a body in the gutter. The girl hesitates for a moment, just the space between breaths, then goes through its pockets for loose change.
fearsome
There's a saying somewhere that goes "lightning, thunder, fire and Father", or something like that. As if she needed reminding.
doubt
Dani has taught herself to push the red-hot-pins-and-needles of impending dissolution down and away from her waking mind, to focus on whatever needs to be done so she will not die. All the same, she will not let herself sleep until she's too exhausted to move.
interrelations
She hovers outside the window, peering in. The father presents some grotesque weapon, fuel lines pulsing like veins, and she disappears before her (not really) cousin can realize where that surge of fear and disgust came from (if not himself).
barometer
She runs for cover, chastising herself for not paying attention to the weather. Picking herself up for the hundredth time, she stares at the sky; its colors are beautiful.
redemption
She scrabbles for purchase, clumsy fingers stubbing on pitch-dark armor. A warm sweet voice tells her that everything will be all right, and Dani wonders if this is what it would have been like to have a mother.
gerundive
Waking, breathing, eating, drinking, walking, climbing, running, talking, falling, eliminating, coughing, shivering, fighting, dreaming, sleeping, wishing, screaming, hoping. Dani hates her façade of a normal human girl all the more for her need of it.
evacuate
She stumbles, gasping for breath, and struggles to stay intangible long enough to get away from the angry humans with big guns. She remembers who else was caught in the crossfire and runs faster.
detecting
She draws in a breath, mentally sorting through the jumble of tastes-smells-feels that roll over her tongue. The strongest now is the venom of purposeless rage, and she chokes.
tatters
Dani bites down on a curse when she sees the massive tear in her jacket to go with the mostly-blue patches. And just who's going to fix this?