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Home > Expos > Event 8 > Page 17
A POEM OF BLUES AND REDS▼
A POEM OF BLUES AND REDS

Lights dim slightly. An audience calms to a hush, whispers of anticipation amongst those who eagerly waited for the show to start. A microphone is tapped.

"Please welcome our next guest, our high esteemed XoXo to the stage. This night's performance is titled... █████████████, or Behold, there is Naught."

A crawl of colors and visual distortion takes center stage, peeling itself away the wall to stand within the spotlight. A pair of cekeki flank the one dimensional being with buckets of paint in hand. And with a soft click, music begins to play.

[Ruby My Dear - Croque Monsieur A Disneyland]
XoXo
"......"
XoXo
2025-02-02 15:41:37
XoXo Profile
Posted by ID #3
Last edit: 2025-02-02 15:47:37
"→→→→→→→→→ꕀꕀ⿴ꕀꕀ←←←←←←←←"

"୭ৎ"
XoXo
" ██████████████████████████████████████░░░░░░↓↓↓↓↓↓░░░░░░░░███████████▁▂▃▄▅▆▇ ❚❚"
XoXo
2025-02-02 15:52:15
XoXo Profile
Posted by ID #3
Last edit: 2025-02-02 15:55:10
"꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦"

"ᕱᕱ"

"ꐑꐑ"

"ଘ"
XoXo
" ୭ MY NAME? MY NAME. TELL ME, FATHER, WHAT IS MY NAME. ৎ "
XoXo
The two cekeki at the sides of the stage rear back, and fling forward their individual paint cans. The stage is drenched in a bright, piercing blue.

" ➜➜➜➜ ⚠︎ ...... "
XoXo
"˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗"
XoXo
" THE CLOVER PLACED BEHIND YOUR EAR. THE BLADE BETWEEN THE TEETH. DID I DO WELL? IS IT GENTLE? DON'T YOU FEEL IT TOO? "
XoXo
" ⚞⎙⚟ "

"｟▓▣▣▣▣▣▣▓｠✎"
XoXo
2025-02-02 16:11:50
XoXo Profile
Posted by ID #3
Last edit: 2025-02-02 16:13:49

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XoXo
" DO YOU SEE ME? WHAT IS MY NAME! DO YOU FEEL ME? WHAT IS MY NAME! "
XoXo
" CRIMSON MACHINE. FIRETRUCK RED. FLAMING, BURNING. I AM A BURNING OFFICE BUILDING. PUT ME TO REST FOR I HAVE NO NAME! "
XoXo
" ✄┈┈┈┈ "
XoXo
2025-02-02 16:19:19
XoXo Profile
Posted by ID #3
Last edit: 2025-02-02 16:20:55
" They see me too late.
I am naught but ash. "
XoXo
Xoxo bows their head, paint pools and drips off of the stage. The audience gives their approval, and the two cekeki slink back behind the curtain. Xoxo lingers there for a moment longer, before sinking back into the floor.
===================
[Igorrr & Ruby My Dear - Barbecue]
2025-02-02 16:24:33
Profile
Posted by ID #3
Last edit: 2025-02-02 16:25:15

An audience murmurs as the show awaits its start, talk of something new having graced these walls amidst an age of increasingly stagnant entertainment.

N-414
A notail shuffles in to the small space, finding somewhere solitary enough to take a seat. The leather of his coat creaking against his tense motions, unable to quite sit still after all that had transpired. He did not plan to engage with whatever act was to appear tonight, just to find himself awash in a sound that wasn't the clattering of arms or the worries of his fellow notails.
XoXo
2025-02-02 16:26:18
XoXo Profile
Posted by ID #107
Last edit: 2025-07-22 02:47:51
The crowd stills, an announcement of the performance rings out but is muted by the excited murmur and chatter of the notail's neighbors. In a sea of different species, the lights dim and lights focus in on a brick wall.

The flood lights then shine Blue. And the apparent performer, formed like graffiti scrawled on the wall, appears and speaks. Of course, however...
XoXo
2025-02-02 16:28:48
XoXo Profile
Posted by ID #3
Last edit: 2025-02-02 16:29:05
" ıllı RED POPPY FIELD. CROCODILE SMILE. PLEASE, TAKE ME BETWEEN THE THREADS AND SEW ME INNNnn⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ "


Its spoken mostly in a language unfamiliar. Although the neighboring audience seemingly follows along just fine, staring intently ahead, it's unclear how much of this they are picking up.
N-414
At first he'd tried not to focus on the lights, or the show, or anything really beyond the sounds. The shade of blue was almost nauseating. The performance was not what he had anticipated either, there was no spoken Limbolish but a series of odd dotted sounds.
N-414
He turns to look at the artist...
N-414
...and beneath his face, he grimaces.
XoXo
The poetry continues on. XoXo gestures widely, trailing their claws down the bricks but never truly making contact. Every word was choked out like desperation, and the anomaly wallows in the blue light. It was.. an eccentric performance, to put it kindly. Clear, the audience loved it, and Xo's emotions were placed bare on his sleeves as he twists and turns on stage.
XoXo
However in the midst of the performance, although trained not to do so. XoXo pauses.. and makes eye contact with the Notail sat in the seats before them. For the faintest moment, the hybrid's eyes widen..
XoXo
..............

Time marches on. The performance feels longer than it necessarily was, for both parties. Cekeki slither out, change seating, aliens walk back stage. The living image that was XoXo crawls along the walls, searching for that second of familiarity that they felt.
N-414
Through the bitterness of memories past he becomes more attentive to the art at hand, no longer using it as a white noise but focusing on just what the remnant of his Hell was saying. Twenty something years had passed, and what was before him now was hardly what they had once been.
N-414
So he watches, and he listens, waiting.
XoXo
Intermission comes and goes. While it was difficult to parse the sharp notes, another language used was slightly more.. understandable. But perhaps a bit more grating to the ears. N-414 could catch a wince or two in the audience, but none got up from their seats to escape the noise.
XoXo
...The Blue washed lights give way to bright, blinding white. Only lingering for a moment, it obscures XoXo entirely. In a blink, they were gone, and those in the seats clapped and snapped their fingers in approval. Chattering among one another, and eagerly awaiting for the next performer to cycle in.
N-414
"...."
N-414
He gets up out of his seat. It was a mostly cekeki based audience with aliens running in and out of the wings often. Unwilling to let the chance reunion slip by he makes his way through the crowds and up through to the wings in search of this spectre.
XoXo
Fortunately for N-414, the one he sought was quite suddenly beneath his feet. Followed like a shadow, away from the denser crowd of people.

" ! "
XoXo
" APOLO- Apologies, for the suddennnness, did you (didn't you?) enjoy the Show?" The anomalous being clears their throat, and pulls their form up to a nearby wall.

" ...Mmm mmm. ˢᵐᵃˡˡ ᵂᵒʳˡᵈ, right?"
N-414
2025-02-02 16:36:02
N-414 Profile
Posted by ID #107
Last edit: 2025-07-22 02:50:07
He quickly raises his foot upon spotting Xoxo beneath it, lowering it slowly as the hybrid creeps up the wall. He had remembered them speaking, but still found it a surprise after their performance to hear much clearer spoken words.
"I fear I will never understand the arts, even if I felt myself reacting to it in ways I couldn't put words to. That blue was so..."
N-414
"So... What are you doing here? Did his plans work? Is his grand conspiracy a part of the universe's annihilation?"
XoXo
2025-02-02 16:38:20
XoXo Profile
Posted by ID #3
Last edit: 2025-02-02 16:39:00
XoXo reels back slightly, this reaction was somewhat unexpected. But thinking it over...

" Oh, you (ⓎⓄⓊ) , you don't know...."
XoXo
"How long has it been? How long.."
N-414
"Twenty years. 8}"
XoXo
"2️⃣ DECADES! Oh. Ohh. That's how long since-!"
XoXo
"Mhh. Ccc soɐɥƆ has been gone for half that many years. Mhm."
XoXo
"There's no way you could of known. No one but. no one but (few) know. Sorry you'll find out this way."
N-414
"Ah..."
Though it had hardly raised, his voice lowers to a more softer note.
N-414
"And... The rest of your family?"
XoXo
2025-02-02 16:42:08
XoXo Profile
Posted by ID #3
Last edit: 2025-02-02 16:42:25
" As well. As well. " XoXo shakes their head.
" Except, there is one. But we have not sp0000oken to one another in... Mhh.. Too long. Too bad."
XoXo
" We move on. We craft from the fruits of our sorrows. We eee e eee." XoXo shakes their head again. " We move on with our lives. You've moved on with yours, haven't you?"
N-414
He looks off, back out through the wings he'd entered through.
N-414
"I've been waiting. The union is all I had known, and he promised to shatter it. After what he did I had assumed there was some machination in store for me, something I was supposed to wait for, to bide my time and that things would be fixed."
N-414
"But if he has been dead all this time then... Every small attribution I'd made thinking of him was wrong. Had he even any involvement in the containment of O-11? 8}"
XoXo
" [Rabbit] ? "
XoXo
"Wish I could an nn AAnswer. Wɪsʜ I could answer, but I have not been (Cannot go back) I have not been back.. "home" since My Father's departure. "
XoXo
" It's gone. There's nothing nothing Nothing ◼️ ◾ ▪️ to go back to! Woe. If the rabbit is containeddd, I don't know where it goes now. Sorry!"
XoXo
"I waas. A child. Mhh... hindsight is 20/20, don't you think?"
N-414
"A child. Yes."
He wasn't sure what to make of Xoxo at this stage in their life, only that it was a far cry from the wild anomaly he'd met some twenty years ago.
N-414
He holds his arms together down over his stomach, rolling the beads around one of his wrists.
"You have my condolences. I cannot think of much more to offer you, beyond an apology. I had come here expecting your presence as some ill portent, when you are simply just..."
N-414
"Living."
XoXo
" Difficult. " XoXo's eyes glance back towards the showroom. "This is rare, you know? These in the seats.. Zoocorp's dD DESK7█▓-"
XoXo
XoXo holds a hand up to pardon himself for the outburst. "Desk jockies. Entertainment that isn't under the Zzzzz Zoo umbrella hard to come by."
XoXo
"...Why here, you, now? What brings you here ? Apologies... for not reaching out."
N-414
"This is all that is left, Xoxo. There is no where else to be."
N-414
"Usual work. Traveling with Q-Class brigades as a small support amidst the stress of their work."
N-414
"Highly fortunate to have been assigned here, in fact. I had considered staying home which... Is now gone."
N-414
"I... There is no need for apologies. I was a blink in the time of your youth."
N-414
"A stand-in father for a play dinner."
XoXo
XoXo repositions themself into a sitting pose, over the molding of the wall, hands laid into their lap.
" Maybe so. Ⓨⓞⓤ'ⓡⓔ ⓘⓝ ⓜⓨ ⓣⓗⓞⓤⓖⓗⓣⓢ, ⓗⓞⓦⓔⓥⓔⓡ!" The anomaly grins.
XoXo
" Good might they be. Better than mosttt most most... Perhaps you'll, try to understand the Aaa rts more often? "
N-414
His words seem lighter for the briefest moment, some of the tension he had brought into the building easing away.
"That is... Kind."
N-414
"Now I feel I must apologize, I had not accounted for this. I feel... Ill-prepared."
XoXo
"Nnno reason nnot to be. You sat through You sat through my poetry withoutt t understanding aa word. Ha ! "
XoXo
"Olddd family friend, they're diffifff. Difficult to come by. I have enough Hang ups."
N-414
He looks back out through the wings, turning a foot towards the exit.
N-414
"I would love to talk to you further, and to understand your art, Xoxo. But I fear what time I have left might be short."
N-414
"O-5 will be making a move soon, and though I am no Q-Class I shall take my stand in that movement."
XoXo
" SOunds rather ₛₑᵣᵢₒᵤₛ."
N-414
"It's a desperate attempt to rectify the long line of mistakes the union has made to get to this point."
N-414
"Typically I would find myself amidst the cowards, those who wish only to live no matter the cost."
N-414
"But I have wasted my time. I am of the same accountability as my leaders, for I have done nothing to change this course."
N-414
"If it is to submit to the will of the gods, or die spiting them, then my choice is clear."
N-414
"Though I'm sorry to have re-entered your life, only to promise to die within days of doing so."
XoXo
"....." XoXo turns their head, much like an animal trying to understand an unfamiliar sound.
XoXo
They wished they had more time to ponder this. But something about this felt familiar to them, in such a way that XoXo spoke without thinking.
" And this, and this noble cause? The- the ↟↟↟↟↟TOwwErrs↟↟↟↟↟ those. It's because of those, right?"
N-414
"Yes. We cannot undo the damage done, and had we acted sooner perhaps it would've never happened at all."
N-414
"Another failing... But O-5 believes it possible to stop the machine. Perhaps amidst the collapse of all things a new beginning shall emerge. One free from holy influence."
XoXo
In the time that N-414 spent explaining, XoXo had turned completely upside down from their space on the wall. Their hat falls to the floor where the wall meets- not that it was physical, anyhow.
" Stop the machine. Stop the machine. "
XoXo
"But do you, do you think," XoXo rights themself. "DO you think it may, work?"
N-414
He bent down to pick up the hat, then stopped as his claws pressed against the wall.
N-414
N-414 looks up at Xoxo, a hint of worry cutting through the veil.
"It... Well, it has to. Life cannot go on like this."
N-414
"Not as life should."
XoXo
XoXo pauses to pick up their hat, staring blankly..
"Noble cause indeed. You'll need.."
XoXo
"Hhhh h hhh HELP! Yes. All the hhh Hhhh Help you can you can you can get. N-414,"
XoXo
" I am an artisttt. But furthermorerrererrr. A drop in the bucket. Grand Scheme. A talent that can be used elsewhere. After.. After After all."
XoXo
" It's no use living life like this. There's something moreeee to be had."
XoXo
"...Makes for good ssss. Stories to tell, as well."
N-414
His antennae fold back, flat against the top of his hair.
"This is such a foreign feeling... I have nothing to compare it to. There is mourning, and yet comfort."
N-414
"You must be certain. I did not come to enlist you here, I do not wish this fate upon you."
N-414
"Are you to follow me into this fight, Xoxo? 8}"
XoXo
"Mhh. Mmhhhh. What's the word for this."
XoXo
"Fuck it."
XoXo
"To leave sssomething. Of Note Behind. If I fail, it means I did not abandon my mm mmy post. "
XoXo
"There will be something to be proud of. I'll be seeing you again ＳＯＯＮ, N-414?"
N-414
He stares at the figure on the wall for a moment, a surge of small movements coursing up through his body, leading to a more dignified and upright posture.
N-414
"Soon, Xoxo. We shall face this ordeal together, that there may be a better future to look forward to."
N-414
"And I sincerely hope it is one you get to see."
XoXo
"You As well. Old friend." XoXo looks back towards the stage room, and glances back at N-414 once more. " Be safe."
N-414
He clasps his hands together, a visible expression of his joy that his face could not convey.
N-414
Yet as he slips out through the wings and through the audience a new despair grips him. Their life was in his hands now.
XoXo
XoXo watches N-414 out... swallowing hard. All too familiar. All they had to do was follow through this time. They slip in through the cracks in the wall, to wait until next performance.
===END OF INTERMISSION===
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