#⚠️ cw: identity death

[borhaprequiem]

Beyond the Seams

Fandom: AI: The Somnium Files Rating: 13+ for swearing and some intense themes Major Characters: Kaname Date, Hitomi Sagan, original trans characters Pairings: Kaname Date/Hitomi Sagan Words: 2,448

Heads up: This fic features identity death (complete removal of memories) and anime-style characters turning into realistic, ordinary humans. As well as cis-to-trans, though I try to handle it tactfully and avoid calling too much attention to the specific changes it would imply. (Also T4T Datomi is canon to me in at least one timeline lbr.) If you are sensitive at all to any of these tropes please don't read this.

Summary: Thanks to the leader of NAIX, Date and Hitomi are emancipated from the simulation. What happens to them in the realm beyond is something they could never have imagined.

Author's note: you may notice that some details are inconsistent with the actual games. this is because i wanted to avoid spoilers since i imagine most of my audience has not played this series (you should though it's fucking amazing). also i wrote this in a spiteful "i saw someone use this idea and thought i could do it better" haze so i didn't really care lol

Please read my bio before following.

“Hitomi Sagan has been captured by us. Come to the basement of the Lemniscate building if you ever want to see your beloved again.”--NAIX

Those were the words on the slip of paper Kaname Date held in his hand. He clenched his other fist, seething. There was no way they would get away with this.

He and the other members of ABIS had recently been investigating the Half Body Killings, and he had suspicions that the cult-like organization NAIX was behind them. Unfortunately, they had caught onto him first, and now were demanding ransom.

“Let's go, Aiba. There's no time to waste,” he said to his partner. If she wasn't currently embedded in his eye socket, she would've nodded.

--------------------------

As soon as Date had arrived at the very bottom floor of Lemniscate, he saw his partner Hitomi gagged and tied to a chair, as well as a large, complex, strange machine in the middle of the room. It had two giant, mechanical arms with pointy ends meeting in the center. But the latter was of no concern to him compared to the former.

“Hitomi!” Date cried. “I’m going to get you out of there, don't worry—”

Hitomi’s mouth had been completely taped over, so she could only nod in response. And yet, her face brightened up instantly upon seeing her boo come to rescue her.

But when Date rushed over to her and began trying to untie her—another door to the room opened, and Tokiko Shigure, the leader of NAIX, walked in.

“Oh, Date, finally you decide to show up.” Her tone was monotonous and her face completely devoid of emotion—which made it that much more unsettling. “I have located a tear in the seams of the simulation we’re in, and I’ve decided that you'll have the honor of being the first to be emancipated.”

“...What the HELL does that mean?!” Date screamed. He took out his gun and pointed it straight at Tokiko. “Let Hitomi go, and no one gets hurt. This is an ORDER from the MPD.”

The corners of Tokiko’s mouth turned up ever so slightly, making as much of a smirk as possible on the face of one who had given up all emotions.

“Don't worry, I’ll let her go,” she replied. “From the simulation, that is. And you will follow her.”

Date’s hand didn't budge. He kept his finger on the trigger, ready to shoot if she made a wrong move.

“But you have a choice. You may choose to join my cause, and I will send both of you to a perfect reality where you can live peacefully and freely. Or continue to resist, and your selves will be erased altogether.

Date grunted.

“Like HELL I’d join you, bitch!”

He pulled the trigger—

—

—and as soon as he did, the large machine in the room whirred to life. Faster than the blink of an eye, the two arms seemed to rip apart the fabric of reality itself, creating a dark, ethereal rift between them.

Its gravity pulled the bullet away from its target—and into the rift, where it vanished.

Date could feel the gun in his hand rattle as it, too, was pulled towards the tear in reality. His feet slid closer and closer to the rift as he tried his best to keep them on the ground, slowly marching his way towards Hitomi. The chair she was tied onto was sliding closer to the rift as well, as the ropes binding her snapped off one by one and flew into the rift just as the bullet did.

Date’s hair blew around, slightly obscuring his path to his destination. It was as if a large, powerful wind had engulfed the entire room.

And before he knew it, he was only a few steps away from Hitomi—but her bindings had completely come undone, and she only had her chair to grip onto to stay on earth.

“Almost—”

As he reached for her—her chair suddenly slipped off its legs, about to tumble right into the gaping hole right next to her. Hitomi screamed as much as she could with her mouth still taped over, instinctively letting go of the chair—and just in time, Date caught her.

“Don’t worry, I got ya—”

But not for long, unfortunately. The suction of the rift was too powerful, and after a few seconds, the force grew too much for Date—his grip slipped, and Hitomi disappeared into the rift…and Date followed not even a second after.

The last thing Date saw before departing this world was, out of the corner of his eye, Tokiko smirking wider than he’d ever seen before.

--------------------------

It was the strangest feeling. Date felt as if he was falling endlessly within an abstractly colored nothingness as unusual sensations overcame his body. He watched his hair blow all around him, the thick, smooth locks beginning to…split apart, finer and finer. Every morning when he did his hair, he’d always noticed that the strands melded together in bunches with several of the nearby ones. That’s how it was supposed to be. That’s how it was for everyone. But now, it was as if he could see each individual hair of his, completely separate from all the other ones. It was bewildering. What the hell was happening, this wasn’t right, this was making his head hurt—

His hair wasn’t the only thing changing; his clothes also began to become less smooth, patterns of very thin fibers woven together starting to appear and spreading throughout his outfit. Date caught a glimpse of his glove, and his skin began to crawl as he saw the intricate, detailed woven pattern wash over it. This was far too much detail than he was used to. It was unsettling. It was maddening.

But he couldn’t dwell on that. He had to find Hitomi.

“HITOMI!” he cried out. No response. He tried his best to swim through the void to look for her, but he didn’t really know if he was actually moving.

But a far more unnerving sight greeted him instead. Suddenly, he could see his face, extremely clear and close-up, all around him. It was as if he was in a house of mirrors, but if the mirrors were all zoomed in.

He watched as a similar thing happened to his face as it did to his clothes. Tiny little wrinkles and hairs appeared all over his skin as it took on a more leathery texture. And he could see it in extremely high detail. He screamed. He continued to scream as he was forced to watch his nose widen slightly, the edges and nostrils becoming more defined. A new pinkness tinged his lips as tiny creases appeared throughout them. And as his eyelashes and eyebrows split into individual hairs just like the blond locks flowing from his head, he felt a pounding headache as his eyes shrank a bit.

Hopefully Aiba being there wouldn’t hurt him or her in any way—wait. Was she still there?

“Aiba! AIBA!” Date yelled once again, only to again be met with silence.

He felt a slightly uncomfortable feeling in his eyes—plastic? Was there plastic in there? Was he wearing…contacts? He suddenly noticed that his left eye was working as normal again—it didn’t feel like Aiba was there at all.

“AIBA!!! Shit! Where did you go?!”

Tears welled up in both of his eyes as he clutched his head. He didn’t know what was happening to him, or where two of the people he cared about most were, and on top of that his head was starting to feel foggy. What could he do? Nothing. Nothing at all. He squeezed his eyes shut, neither wanting to look at his magnified reflection anymore nor accept his current reality, and hoped that it all would be over soon.

And to add insult to injury, he felt an almost painful tingling pass through his muscles and bones. His whole body felt as if it was rearranging itself—he was being compressed slightly shorter, and the proportions of his body shifted around. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but everything just felt wrong. His clothes didn’t fit the way they used to—too tight in some places and too loose in others. He was beginning to feel like a stranger in his own body. What was that bitch Tokiko doing to him?!

Suddenly—foreign thoughts suddenly hit his mind. Memories. Ideas. Revelations about the world he came from. And then one of them practically slapped him in the face.

It was all just a game.

Now, Date wasn’t big into video games. He just couldn’t get into ShovelForge or any of Iris’s other favorites no matter how many times she begged him to play with her. But at the very least, he knew they were just lines of code controlling the images on the computer screen, or however Pewter explained it to him. Mere fabrications. Fiction.

…Was he just lines of code this whole time? Were none of his free will or sense of self really his, and he was just being controlled by some jumbles of 1s and 0s?

God damn it. God damn it to hell.

He yelled, digging his hands into the sides of his head—and then his hair came off. 

Shaking, he stared at the lump of hair he now held in his hands. It was a wig. If he could see the top of his head, he’d notice that underneath it was a short black buzzcut.

He clenched his teeth, which had, too, split from two solid strips of white into sections that looked like rounded squares and cubes. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. His reality was breaking apart around him. Was this the “emancipation” that NAIX so fervently strived for? What did they even see in this horrifying madness?

Date’s thoughts were interrupted by a brown flash out of the corner of his eye.

“Hitomi!”

God, even his voice felt wrong. He didn’t know if it was something that actually changed within him or just the space they were in bending the sound, but it was much higher-pitched than usual. But he didn’t care at this point. He had finally found his lover.

He could tell that Hitomi had gone through the same “detail-ification” process that had happened to him, though she appeared to be barely conscious. Her body was limp and her eyes half-closed. Date once again tried to swim over to her…and he managed to grab onto her good arm. Her sweater looked and felt a lot rougher than usual, but that barely mattered at this point.

…Did the hand on her other arm just twitch? He chose to ignore that.

“Hitomi, Hitomi, I’m so glad you’re alright.” Date leaned closer to her ear. “We’re going to get out of here. Back to safety. Back *home,* even. I promise.”

…Where was home, again?

As Date tried to picture his apartment…or Hitomi’s house…it just didn’t feel as familiar to him. It felt like he was trying to picture a house belonging to a stranger that he saw once. Or a character in a game, even…

What about the people he knew? Every face his mind conjured up felt flat, fake. Fictional.

He couldn’t let himself go like this. He had to remember. He—

He clutched his head again with his other hand. Who even was he, really? He realized he couldn’t even recall his name. Or the name of the other person in front of him. All he knew was that she was his dear partner, and he loved her and needed to protect her. So he hugged her and held on tight.

The two began to fall slower and slower…as the mess of colors surrounding them began to untangle themselves into something more resemblant of a defined reality.

And as they settled down to earth again, the man slowly began to drift back to reality. His identity began to flow back to him. He was a salaryman living just outside Tokyo. During his time off, he loved playing all sorts of games and visual novels. And his name…

His name…

Kouta Tanaka snapped back to the present. He was standing in the entrance hall of his apartment, deep in an embrace with his girlfriend, Hanako Suzuki.

“...You alright?” Hanako muttered. “That was a kind of a long hug…felt like you didn’t want to let go. Not that I’m complaining~” She giggled.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just…kind of zoned out a bit.” He broke off the hug and scratched his head—er, wig—sheepishly.

The two had just gotten back home after a long, exciting day at Comiket. It was the first time they had tried out a couple’s cosplay, and they had lots of fun browsing all the comics and merch at the vendors’ booths, as well as meeting other cosplayers with stunning outfits and props. They even managed to meet a couple other fans of AI: The Somnium Files, who had complimented their Date and Hitomi costumes greatly.

But the best part was—it was a time when they felt they could truly be themselves. Social pressure pushed them to stay closeted for most of the year, and HRT was nigh impossible for them to get in Japan. At these sorts of conventions, however, all judgements were suspended, and they were free to dress in the outfits that gave them the most gender euphoria, as the characters they most looked up to or related to.

“I know I said this already, but—you make a perfect Hitomi, dear.” Kouta stroked his girlfriend’s wig, feeling the soft, straight brown strands in his hands. She blushed at the compliment.

“And you make a perfect Date!” she exclaimed back. Kouta simply smiled.

Even as they exchanged more romantic banter, Kouta still had a stray thought on his mind. Something that scratched at the back of his brain. It was kind of dumb. But he couldn’t help but pop the question.

“Y’know, with how much we identify with Date and Hitomi…Do you think we might have actually been them in a past life?”

Hanako chuckled. “That sounds kind of silly. …But honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised. If that really were the case…I know we’d find each other again in any universe.”

“You really think so?”

“Absolutely.”

Now it was Kouta’s turn to blush madly. Being able to resonate on silly topics like this…he really couldn’t ask for a better partner.

“Then I’m glad I found you. I…I love you, Hitomi.”

Hanako giggled again upon being called that. “And I love you…Kaname.”

And so they embraced each other again, locking lips in a deep, passionate kiss. No matter what might have happened in the past, their current life was perfect—as they had each other.

#📝 writing #🟡 rating: 13+ #⚠️ cw: identity death #📚 media: ai the somnium files #🦋 human to human #🦋 reality shift #🦋 male to male #🦋 female to female (offscreen) #transformation

[aquaticfreakshow-sys]

🖤Aquaticfreakshow.com🖤

Bodily Info -

🔋 Age 19 [ Oct.22 ] 🔋

🕷 Mixed. 🕷

🩵 Physically Disabled. 🩵

🕸 Wheelchair User 🕸

🔌 Visual Issues 🔌

Collective Info -

💛 Siren / Aqua 💛

⚡️ Void/Xei/They/He ⚡️

✨️ Neutral Terms ✨️

🌟 Collectively Non-Human 🌟

⭐️ Requires Tone Tags ⭐️

[ Carrd // DNI ] updated Oct.2023

Diagnosed -

🖤 Dissociative Identity Disorder 🖤

🎧 Autism, ADHD 🎧

🎬 Dyslexia 🎬

Recognized -

💙 NPD, PPD, BPD 💙

🩻 Tic Disorder 🩻

🪼 POTS 🪼

Physical [Diagnosed] -

🩶 Spina Bifida 🩶

🦴 Leg Abnormalities 🦴

☠️ Arthritis ☠️

💚 System Info 💚

Hosts -

Sean, he/void/xei, ages with the body. Nicknamed Squid or Squidy, nicknames based on real name reserved for close friends and family.

Non-Human Alter, Demon. Trauma Holder, fusion.

Aro/Ace, Gay, Trans. Masc terms only.

- 💙🌸 [doesn't sign off often.]

Leonardo, he/xei/it/they/xey. Nicknamed Leo or Neo, nicknames such as Nardo or Leon are reserved for close friends and family. Age slides, middle to adult.

Introject Host, Non-Human, Mutant Turtle.

Demi + Gay, Ace, Trans masc. Neutral/masc terms.

- ⚔️💙⚔️ [may also use ⚔️🩵⚔️]

Co-Hosts -

Nick, she/they/he, adult [19 - 20s].

Caretaker, handles our public outings, she is very social most of the time. Social Alter?

Queer/Gay, unlabeled gender, any terms.

- 🧡💛❤

Dante, he/they, adult [20s]

Introject, Non-Human, Werewolf. Source is MyStreet, mcyt rp series from 2016. Nicknamed Blue, anyone can use it to refer to him. Entire roles unknown.

Arospec Bi, demiboy, masc terms.

- 💙🐺

Kenny, any pronouns/mirror pronouns, middle.

Introject, Previously main host during childhood and very early teen years. Source is South Park.

Unlabeled entirely, will use queer as a cover all term though. Any terms.

- K☠️🧡

Tiktok - aquaticfreakshow.com

Simply Plural - AquaticFreakshow_sys

Leos Twitter - neon_nardo_

Instagram - travis.valkrum_22

Leos Tiktok - neon.nardo

Partner System - @warpaint-sys

Seans Partner - @sammy--moh

Main Blog - @siren--squid

AO3 - AquaticFreakShow_sys

Seans Quotev - ourmainattraction

Tags -

#cranky babies = anon hate.

#our face = pictures of us.

#aqua art = our artwork.

#off blog topic = not disorders or disabilities related, like writing or something. rarely used.

#sirens scribbles = vent art or gore/horror.

We use CW [thing] to tag triggers.

Mutuals Please Tag -

Needles / Medical pictures.

Eyestrain / Bright colors.

Death, anything and everything related.

Disney Images / Old Disney.

Fursuits / full-body costumes of any kind.

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#dissociative identity disorder #complex dissociative disorder #did system #diagnosed did #npd #bpd #ppd #osddid #actually autistic #actually did #actually npd #actually ppd #actually bpd #audhd #cluster b #physically disabled #disability #disabled #anti endo #anti endogenic #anti tulpa #anti demo systems #anti endo system