[WELP. IT'S OUT OF HIS HANDS NOW. IF THINGS GO WRONG, IT'S HER FAULT. There's a clunk and then a jolt as the elevator starts to freefall and honestly he's clinging to that statement that people have survived this before because this feels way too fast right now, one hand on his beanie and the other going to brace on the wall like that would actually help.
After a solid minute of it it's like... if they were going to splat they probably would have. Normal elevator shafts... probably don't do this. Weird Yogen Stuff it is.]
...I'll defer to your expertise, then.
[A bad scenario... his own mind serves them up to him free of charge on the regular, so which one would it be? Him being murdered would probably feature... can't narrow it down much more than that...]
Ahaha, since we're from the same place, do you think...? Well, I guess we'll see once we get there...
[She hasn't seen hers, yet she's been down here before, so... always someone else's makes sense. It could be just a coin toss between them.]
Lets just agree whatever we see...its not reality, okay? My worst fears, or yours. We can be better then that.
[ Its a nice line right? She says it calmly, with the steadfast tone that she'd found herself perfecting over the course of the game. But it feels dirty to say. She already made Shin's worst fear come true, but if she's here that can't possibly be a bad ending if she's standing here, right?
It's such a cruel explanation for why she decided to come, that she instantly dismisses it. He didn't want to be alone. He asked. Sara is just here to push a few buttons and poke around for clues about the school. Maybe shoot Midori, if he shows up.
The elevator stops short with a rumble. Sara starts up from her position on the wall, but the doors are already opening with a slight sound, standing open onto a familiar set of steps.
Its so viseral, seeing that hallway. Sara recognizes it in an instant to be the second floor. Even the smell...that cheap sent of paint and stale air instantly sets her on edge. It feels like she's there again suddenly, standing with Gin and Keiji instead of Sou. It's enough to take her breath away.
But no, a voice that sounds like Keiji's almost whispers. It's not just that. The smell...she knows it. Like the white room, where she hadn't noticed anything except her own unease until he'd pointed it out.
But then the elevator comes to a stop. Not so much a ding as a whisper and then an equally weighty silence that says 'leave, or don't'. He steps out behind her, the light from the open doors illuminating the stairs in front of them. His neck prickles. It takes him a while to place where they are, because he only saw the stairs from the top once, when he was testing the vending machine with Kanna...]
The third floor... [So it is the death game... There's a long pause. He's pressing his scarf over his mouth and nose... like Sara before Keiji pointed it out, it's because of stimuli being processed purely and entirely on the unconscious level. He takes a step forward and down.] W-we should probably get going. Don't want to know what happens if someone in the school calls the elevator while we're down here...
...I just mean. I hated you for a while, and you hated me right, so-
[ Her correction is cut short by the door and the smell. She stands in the elevator, white knuckled as Shin steps past her. She can't manage to get her legs to move for a second, because its the death game, and she smells blood.
But Sou's strangely calm (?), logical voice makes her square her shoulders and step out onto the stairs. ]
We should be fine. [ She squares her shoulders, tucking her chin down towards her collar. ] But, you're right, lets be quick. We explored this floor pretty well, right?
[ It's doubtful they'd find anything new about the game, but maybe there was information about the school here somewhere. She couldn't say, but she quietly steps down past Sou, the sound of her feet echoing in the room.
It's so quiet. This floor was never quiet, the rumble of the attractions or everyone arguing, breathing, living, in a desperate way that Sara wished she knew how to keep ahold of. Now it feels dead, silent. There's not even a rumble of machinery.
The scent of blood remains. Sara stops suddenly, staring down at something crumpled on the bottom step.
It's funny, she knows exactly what it is the moment she sees the blue of its jacket. It's just...she can't think of anything to say. ]
[It's silent, dead silent, and dark, like a school after everyone's packed up and gone home for the night... empty and dormant and waiting.
Just their feet, and the sound of each other breathing, and then Sara stops suddenly and he follows her gaze.]
.....
Ahaha... [It's a quiet, weak laugh.] Guess this is yours...
....
[He steps down, closer to it. He's had practice fighting his own nausea, urge to run away in an area where there's no such thing, cramming down that rabbit-heart thing whenever it started clawing it's way back up again. The last step and then he's just standing there looking down at it for a long while, what area of his face visible being blank. It's hard to say what he feels. It feels a bit much to feel anything when this was what he'd, at some point, in some form, wanted.]
Don't look at it, Sara. It's not reality, right? [The tone dips just enough gentle it's plausibly deniable before going back to business.] Time to see if anything else has changed... [He flicks on the lighter, swiffs his scarf back over his shoulder, and starts walking into the dark, towards the lobby.]
[ It is hers. Her. Crumpled, in a familiar blue uniform Sara has traded out for black. The bodies expression is obscured by a mess of reddish hair, but its hands fall limp around its skirt, blood caked under the nails. There isn't much blood, rather then the faint smell of burning flesh Sara recalls from Mishima's execution.
A quick glance confirms the obvious, hidden under the hair and by the forward slope of the shoulders, there's no way her head is still connected to her body. She can't see the collar. On the floor? Taken? So she was just...excuted like a lame horse, alone in some hallway? The position is strange, like she'd been staring up at the elevator, but Sara can't focus on that. She's broken out into a cold sweat, near shaking. It's nothing, its just another body, Sou is standing right by it, close enough she can see what little blood there is might be close to getting on his shoes, but its just a body. Sara's seen enough bodies they shouldn't bother her anymore. What right did she have to grieve Alice and Kanna, or any of the dolls? She shouldered that, but she can't take seeing her own corpse?
She wants to fall to her knees and cry, but that would have mirrored the bodies position, so she can't. She stays standing.]
Hh...um? [ She looks up to see Sou step away, walking into the dark of the lobby. ] Wait, just...
[ There's no Keiji to offer her strength, or Gin to tell her he believes in her. So...is she just expected to walk past this on her own. To..to touch... She just can't. She doesn't want to die, she doesn't want to see this! It's scary. Its scary... ]
[Thankfully this is not a Shin who would just Keep Going when he realizes he isn't being followed. It's not a Shin that hates her that much, or is that focused on the destination. It's one who stops and turns when there's no footsteps and moves back, the flickering blue light coming closer to reveal she hasn't moved at all.]
Sara...?
[He'd... forgotten, really. That she was a kid. Or rather not forgotten but... her being a threat had just overriden that so much. Could be a ploy to get sympathy, some part of him comments. He hates it, same as usual.
He steps between Sara and the body, getting between her line of sight because that's the best idea that currently comes to mind.]
Hey... Sara... You're not actually dead. Y-you're still breathing, right? I-it's just like... a bad dream, that's all. [A hand hovers, and then places on her shoulder, a suggestion of turning away while he thinks furiously. He is so just not equipped for this. Kanna had nightmares and he did his best with them but he always had the feeling it wasn't really enough.]
Listen... the elevator's still right there. We can just... try another time. [Or never. But there really... isn't a rush. They don't have to do this.]
[ That vile dark part of her might wish it was just a ploy, because the truth that Sara would break down at the sight of her own body...that's nothing to be proud of. It's not steadfast or responsible, or all the things Sara tries to be.
She's still and shaking when Sou rounds the corner, but when he steps in front of her body, she moves again if only to cover her face and inhale sharply. ]
I know...j-just. [ It's hard to put into words. She's seen so many dead bodies, but her own corpse...its less logical then her own heart just crying out in fear. Her shoulders shudder under her hand as she inhales again, a low wheezing sound. ] I know its not me, its just. The way its...its...
[...]
If I died, I'd look like that. [ Its such a simple concept but its true. The way the girl behind Shin looks, its undoubtably her. But she can't see it now, so she can pretend it doesn't bother her, at least for the moment. She looks up at Shin, then shakes her head slowly.
No, I wanted to do this. I guess this must be my bad ending, huh? So I need to get past this, if I want a clue. [Like any nightmare of Sou's would feature her dead body. ] Maybe I ran away... Um. Anyway, just can you please keep standing t-there? I can't look...
[Is this one of the differences between them? Given the opportunity, choosing not to bolt? It's been on his mind lately.]
Right. Ah, maybe you should close your eyes. This way...
[He's going to keep himself between her and the body still but just in case... he's sort of guiding her with the hand, around and away from it, a faint but there pressure on her shoulder-blades, one last backward glance over his shoulder at the body before it disappears from view around the corner. That's when he lets the hand return and sink back into his scarf.]
[ He dropped the honorific, and even if the circumstances are horrible, Sara can't help but feel a little better for it.
Given the opportunity choosing not to bolt...perhaps in that respect they are different. When faced with something difficult, Sara has always chosen to take responsibility, for better or worse. But Sou has tried in his own way, hasn't he? He's trying now...
She doesn't close her eyes, but she walks lock stepped in front of Sou till they reach the corner in front of the lobby. Only then does she exhale, sagging in her skin and covering a pale face with her hand.]
How uncool of me. Sorry, Sou. [ There's probably going to be more bodies, she needs to get it together. If she's dead...is it prideful to assume more people would be? She's not that important, but... ]
Lets move quickly...if this is the second floor... Do you think theres anything on the computers right now?
[Uncool, she says... It's always unnerved him, that brushing off. It was a little less unnerving when he could just assume that was because what preceded it must have been an act.]
...Let's just get it over with, huh. And don't you mean the third floor?
[That's right, this argument is starting. We're doing this.]
Depends... we don't know where the laptop is right now... Don't have tokens for the AIs either, if we can even use them.
[IF HE HAD SARA'S STOLEN WALLET ON HIM WHEN HE DIED IT'S GONE NOW.]
There's the Joe AI... (...) ...Don't think it would know anything, though. If we had Ranger's chip... that'd open up a lot more options for us. Everything's really locked down.
[And it's Annoying. The irritation seeps into his voice. It's almost like they planned the game with you in mind, Shin. I don't know if he ever found out about the passage to the first floor but since it needs a specific Gin-code let's say not.]
Its the floor for the second main game...so why not call it the second floor? [ Sara says, because this is a fine and logical way to think about how the game gets split up. Do you want her to keep track of every floor Sou. She has a life. ]
The laptop. It didn't get taken to the next floor... Weren't you just keeping it in your room until then? [ Or maybe her Sou still had it, but had just hidden it, a disturbing thought. ] If...If that was me...then it can't be the main game yet. There's a ten minute break before the game so they would have cleaned the body up.
[ She remembers how quickly they came to collect Mishima's. So that body had to be extremely recent. Even more curious if it was her collar that killed her, then there was no way the organization didn't know where her body was.]
Joe...? [ She's so wrapped up in her thoughts the name takes a second to register before she remembers, oh, balancing guy. Yeah she doesn't want to think about him. ] Lets forget about the AI's for now! The laptop or Rangers chip...might be more within our grasp.
...That's some interesting reasoning you have there, Sara. It's the floor two stairs up from the first floor. Of course it's the third floor.
[They're both wrong, it's actually floor B4 because they're underground. He goes from looking smug to glancing down in hard thought.]
I've been thinking about that... if this fake you committed a rule violation of some kind...
[It... feels like it both makes sense and doesn't. Sara isn't... well, okay, she can be stupid or weird sometimes, but not really in a way that directly jeopardizes her that badly.
Also ??? Bit of an odd response. He would have thought she'd have wanted to see the AI... he was a bit prepared to try and head her off from that because he'd realized halfway though going through the computers he could remember that it was probably still in it's unaltered state and he'd have to fix it before turning it on but... still, saves him from having to do that... he grins.]
Right! If this is before the main game... then it's absolutely still in my room. And you're the one who found the chip in the first place, right? You know where it is. [He and Miss Nao didn't know much more than that the evil AI had told her to get it from Sahalin, so that was a lucky break... a lucky break taking advantage of Sara's amazing tendency to velcro up important items.]
Do we count the main game rooms as floors, then? There's so many stairs here, I can't keep track of where we are!
[ Genuinely frustrated...]
I..d-don't think I'd violate the rules so brazenly? [ Its not like there were many rules. What could she have done? Refused to enter the main game? Tried to escape? But there was no evidence of either. ] But that was an execution...so there must be a reason.
Lets head there. [ She's turning the corner to the main lobby, pushing open the door so they can walk through to the rooms. ] Kai's laptop first. For the chip we'd need both Rio and Sahfalin here. Rio has to die to get it.
[ So, Kai's laptop might be there best way to search this place. Unless they want to team up to kill different robot. Sara pushes at the door firmly, making the dark hallway flash with light and the sudden blow of the same dark charred scent of the stairs. A few bodies lay crumpled, Keiji lies still in a similar pool of blood, but Reko, a little closer to the door, is an headless husk ending in a tangle of charred wires. Sara goes very still for a second, and then firmly, pointledly, steps over her. ]
[This is where Shin realizes he's been treating the main game rooms as like when you're briefly teleported to an unrelated map in a video game. God now he's questioning everything. Wait, no, wait, hang on... argh, don't do this to him. He had the actual floor map in his hands at one point why is this happening.
Thankfully for him the conversation moves on, and then Sara opening the door kills it.]
...Ah.
[So it's... not just Sara. He stands in the doorway for a bit, looking down. The doll Reko... he closes his eyes and smoothly moves around her, coming up next to Sara. A little more of that familiar nervousness is edging back into his disposition despite himself. He couldn't even really say why.]
What happened here... I-it's like a massacre. [A horrible thought starts to occur to him, that he wants to be wrong about. Sometimes, every so often, a tendency to extrapolate will turn out to be on the right track. He scratches at his neck through the scarf, slowly.] Do you think... the others...?
...We're precious candidates for their game...they wouldn't waste our lives without reason.
[ Sara says it calmly, but her voice is flat and stiff. There's a tremor of anger, or a tremor of fear, but shes stamping both down enough to push her bangs out of her face and not look at Keiji's body in the corner. That's not him. The real Keiji is alive. ]
To execute three people...would be wasting votes, right? So it could be, the game is over? They didn't need us anymore? [ What a terrible thought. She turns to look at Sou with a haunted expression, before she squares her shoulders and looks him dead on. ]
Sou, are you still sure you want to go look in your room?
...You could say the entire game was wasting our lives without reason, ahaha. I think you're giving them too much credit, Miss Sara. Those attractions could have been lethal, you know. Not to mention the first trials...
[Put there to thin out the herd... Disgusting, really. He faces her haunted expression with an empty smile before turning his head away.]
But execution... can't be they just got bored, could it?
[He glances back up at her after she squares her shoulders and asks.]
.......It's like you said, isn't it? If we want a clue, then we have to go forward.
[The worst part about things like this, he doesn't miss it. Nobody will just give you the answers, Shin. Go find things out for yourself. But he can brace himself for what they might find. It's not real. It never happened. This is all just... the school's macabre puppet show. Kanna is out there and alive and... as fine as he could hope for. And himself... well, he's died before...
...and the elevator is still there. There's a beat and then he starts moving.]
Is it without reason..? Why we were there. Gashu talked about it..and so did Mi--Hiyori. Like it was a ritual. [ The scope of the game, lying under their feet like a rotting underbelly was hard to comprehend. Years and years and years and years of this, lying around them in waste. Nothing beside remains. ]
Balancing. [ Sara mutters quietly when Shin brings up first trials as if thats a concept she's explained to him. Again, another knot in the web of preparation. She coughs, raising her voice as she follows after him. ] I don't think I'm wrong. This game had a purpose, like these collars. So I absolutely can't believe they'd kill us on a whim.
[ She follows after him towards his room, but half a step behind. Normally stalwart, Sara doesn't want to be close when it comes to Sou's room. The knowledge of her own corpses location is strange comfort. They've already seen it, so there's no way it can be here, doing anything suspicious. With that in mind, it should be easy to put her worries and sins aside, and help Sou...right? ]
[Gashu cared about the game enough to kill himself for it, that much Shin knows for sure. It's clear an intense amount of money was invested in this alone. But being deeply invested in the game doesn't mean you care about the players. At least not the kind of care that isn't ash and tar, sick and sweet and utterly rotten-core false...]
Ahaha... well, you'd know more wouldn't you?
[A bit of a jab, Midori's last name the tuning fork it's done with... but also his way of dropping slash conceding the argument.
His pace is brisk and stiff but at least there's no other bodies in the hall connecting the rooms... Shin comes to a stop at his, staring at the door. The scarf swings with the motion and stills like a pendulum. He sets his hand on the doorknob. There's a second or two before he inhales, exhales, and opens it like ripping off the bandaid.
The smell of blood instantly once more assaults their senses. Shin freezes, fingers dangling then falling off the doorknob, looking into the room with widened eyes before slowly walking in.]
[ She doesn't have a response to that. Instead, she stands silently behind him as Shin turns the handle. His eyes widen, and he steps inside shakily, following by the reeking stench of blood. Sara falls in half step behind him, tugging at the bow of her uniform with hidden anxeity.
Shin's room looks much the same as it had, all those months ago. The bed is crumpled and unmade, the warm lights ascew and the windows dark. The only splash of color is a vivid stain of red and teal crumpled by the side of the bed. Shin lies chest down...the head itself is missing, instead replaced by a stain of lurid red which blends into the puddle of singed scarf. His hand is still outstretched, reaching out forward with bloody fingers and several broken nails. As Sara stares, she could almost swear she saw them twitch, but that might have been her own rapidly blurring vision.
But that wasn't the only thing in the room, when Sara raised her gaze to the bedside table, Sara saw a familiar bucket and mess of green hair that had every half hearted comfort dead in its tracks. ]
[He walks in and, well, even with mental preparation... his thoughts go choppy and red. It's him. His scarf. His blood. He's dead... He kind of feels like he's underwater, the same feeling that he had in the hall of mirrors, of being in waking nightmare, of that oppressive weight of unheard wine-glass noise and being watched and judged by unknown standards found wanting.
On the outside, he just sways a little, glazed eyes fixed on it and hand firmly in scarf. His mind is oil on water suddenly, separated out. He's watching himself move.]
Gloomy... [It's a murmur, a comment, a sigh, detached. He takes a step forward, and actually lifts his eyes up and what he sees... it's enough to crash through that like the crack of lightning that happens when two charges collide. His voice is very, very small.]
...K- Kanna...?
[Kanna? It's the only thought in his head. That she still has her head is registering on the subconscious level but not breaking through.]
Edited (forgot formatting sfdgfhgh also didn't like the same word repeating) Date: 2021-09-13 07:06 am (UTC)
[ Just imagine Sara is standing stock still and speechless behind Sou, because a miracle happens before she can even move to comfort him. The small shape in the corner of the bed moves with frantic panic, wide green eyes ]
Sou! SOU!
[ Kanna Kazuchi, small, collarless and alive, stands on the other side of the bed, shaking like a leaf. The front of her shirt is stained with blood, her eyes are glazed and shaking but she looks at Shin with a feverish clarity. ]
Y-you're alive? Did it stop? Did Kanna mistake something again? ...She thought she saw...
[ It's funny because...its not a convincing lie. The body is right there between them, like the phone, like everything else, but Kanna isn't the type of girl. She wanted to stand on her own, for the kind words of the people who protected her...but it was their words that mattered, even if they were lies. She was weak like that. Even if Sou wasn't real, she wanted to see him again. She wanted to hear: It's alright.
She sprints to meet him, stepping over his own body to grip at the corners of his jacket. Her sleeves are wet and red, but she reaches up a shaking hand to grab at his scarf and sob into his chest. ]
Kanna was so afraid. She...she thought you were gone, Sou. Kanna was so useless, she couldn't do anything. Again and again...she can't protect anyone. [ The rest is cut off by a sob. ]
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2021-09-09 07:08 am (UTC)After a solid minute of it it's like... if they were going to splat they probably would have. Normal elevator shafts... probably don't do this. Weird Yogen Stuff it is.]
...I'll defer to your expertise, then.
[A bad scenario... his own mind serves them up to him free of charge on the regular, so which one would it be? Him being murdered would probably feature... can't narrow it down much more than that...]
Ahaha, since we're from the same place, do you think...? Well, I guess we'll see once we get there...
[She hasn't seen hers, yet she's been down here before, so... always someone else's makes sense. It could be just a coin toss between them.]
no subject
Date: 2021-09-09 07:20 am (UTC)Lets just agree whatever we see...its not reality, okay? My worst fears, or yours. We can be better then that.
[ Its a nice line right? She says it calmly, with the steadfast tone that she'd found herself perfecting over the course of the game. But it feels dirty to say. She already made Shin's worst fear come true, but if she's here that can't possibly be a bad ending if she's standing here, right?
It's such a cruel explanation for why she decided to come, that she instantly dismisses it. He didn't want to be alone. He asked. Sara is just here to push a few buttons and poke around for clues about the school. Maybe shoot Midori, if he shows up.
The elevator stops short with a rumble. Sara starts up from her position on the wall, but the doors are already opening with a slight sound, standing open onto a familiar set of steps.
Its so viseral, seeing that hallway. Sara recognizes it in an instant to be the second floor. Even the smell...that cheap sent of paint and stale air instantly sets her on edge. It feels like she's there again suddenly, standing with Gin and Keiji instead of Sou. It's enough to take her breath away.
But no, a voice that sounds like Keiji's almost whispers. It's not just that. The smell...she knows it. Like the white room, where she hadn't noticed anything except her own unease until he'd pointed it out.
The faint, but distinct smell of blood. ]
no subject
Date: 2021-09-09 07:51 am (UTC)Something you want to say, Miss Sara?
[It is a nice line, in a familiar tone...
But then the elevator comes to a stop. Not so much a ding as a whisper and then an equally weighty silence that says 'leave, or don't'. He steps out behind her, the light from the open doors illuminating the stairs in front of them. His neck prickles. It takes him a while to place where they are, because he only saw the stairs from the top once, when he was testing the vending machine with Kanna...]
The third floor... [So it is the death game... There's a long pause. He's pressing his scarf over his mouth and nose... like Sara before Keiji pointed it out, it's because of stimuli being processed purely and entirely on the unconscious level. He takes a step forward and down.] W-we should probably get going. Don't want to know what happens if someone in the school calls the elevator while we're down here...
no subject
Date: 2021-09-09 08:08 am (UTC)[ Her correction is cut short by the door and the smell. She stands in the elevator, white knuckled as Shin steps past her. She can't manage to get her legs to move for a second, because its the death game, and she smells blood.
But Sou's strangely calm (?), logical voice makes her square her shoulders and step out onto the stairs. ]
We should be fine. [ She squares her shoulders, tucking her chin down towards her collar. ] But, you're right, lets be quick. We explored this floor pretty well, right?
[ It's doubtful they'd find anything new about the game, but maybe there was information about the school here somewhere. She couldn't say, but she quietly steps down past Sou, the sound of her feet echoing in the room.
It's so quiet. This floor was never quiet, the rumble of the attractions or everyone arguing, breathing, living, in a desperate way that Sara wished she knew how to keep ahold of. Now it feels dead, silent. There's not even a rumble of machinery.
The scent of blood remains. Sara stops suddenly, staring down at something crumpled on the bottom step.
It's funny, she knows exactly what it is the moment she sees the blue of its jacket. It's just...she can't think of anything to say. ]
no subject
Date: 2021-09-09 08:32 am (UTC)Just their feet, and the sound of each other breathing, and then Sara stops suddenly and he follows her gaze.]
.....
Ahaha... [It's a quiet, weak laugh.] Guess this is yours...
....
[He steps down, closer to it. He's had practice fighting his own nausea, urge to run away in an area where there's no such thing, cramming down that rabbit-heart thing whenever it started clawing it's way back up again. The last step and then he's just standing there looking down at it for a long while, what area of his face visible being blank. It's hard to say what he feels. It feels a bit much to feel anything when this was what he'd, at some point, in some form, wanted.]
Don't look at it, Sara. It's not reality, right? [The tone dips just enough gentle it's plausibly deniable before going back to business.] Time to see if anything else has changed... [He flicks on the lighter, swiffs his scarf back over his shoulder, and starts walking into the dark, towards the lobby.]
tw: description of a corpse
Date: 2021-09-09 08:51 am (UTC)[ It is hers. Her. Crumpled, in a familiar blue uniform Sara has traded out for black. The bodies expression is obscured by a mess of reddish hair, but its hands fall limp around its skirt, blood caked under the nails. There isn't much blood, rather then the faint smell of burning flesh Sara recalls from Mishima's execution.
A quick glance confirms the obvious, hidden under the hair and by the forward slope of the shoulders, there's no way her head is still connected to her body. She can't see the collar. On the floor? Taken? So she was just...excuted like a lame horse, alone in some hallway? The position is strange, like she'd been staring up at the elevator, but Sara can't focus on that. She's broken out into a cold sweat, near shaking. It's nothing, its just another body, Sou is standing right by it, close enough she can see what little blood there is might be close to getting on his shoes, but its just a body. Sara's seen enough bodies they shouldn't bother her anymore. What right did she have to grieve Alice and Kanna, or any of the dolls? She shouldered that, but she can't take seeing her own corpse?
She wants to fall to her knees and cry, but that would have mirrored the bodies position, so she can't. She stays standing.]
Hh...um? [ She looks up to see Sou step away, walking into the dark of the lobby. ] Wait, just...
[ There's no Keiji to offer her strength, or Gin to tell her he believes in her. So...is she just expected to walk past this on her own. To..to touch... She just can't. She doesn't want to die, she doesn't want to see this! It's scary. Its scary... ]
no subject
Date: 2021-09-09 09:32 am (UTC)Sara...?
[He'd... forgotten, really. That she was a kid. Or rather not forgotten but... her being a threat had just overriden that so much. Could be a ploy to get sympathy, some part of him comments. He hates it, same as usual.
He steps between Sara and the body, getting between her line of sight because that's the best idea that currently comes to mind.]
Hey... Sara... You're not actually dead. Y-you're still breathing, right? I-it's just like... a bad dream, that's all. [A hand hovers, and then places on her shoulder, a suggestion of turning away while he thinks furiously. He is so just not equipped for this. Kanna had nightmares and he did his best with them but he always had the feeling it wasn't really enough.]
Listen... the elevator's still right there. We can just... try another time. [Or never. But there really... isn't a rush. They don't have to do this.]
no subject
Date: 2021-09-10 07:45 am (UTC)She's still and shaking when Sou rounds the corner, but when he steps in front of her body, she moves again if only to cover her face and inhale sharply. ]
I know...j-just. [ It's hard to put into words. She's seen so many dead bodies, but her own corpse...its less logical then her own heart just crying out in fear. Her shoulders shudder under her hand as she inhales again, a low wheezing sound. ] I know its not me, its just. The way its...its...
[...]
If I died, I'd look like that. [ Its such a simple concept but its true. The way the girl behind Shin looks, its undoubtably her. But she can't see it now, so she can pretend it doesn't bother her, at least for the moment. She looks up at Shin, then shakes her head slowly.
No, I wanted to do this. I guess this must be my bad ending, huh? So I need to get past this, if I want a clue. [Like any nightmare of Sou's would feature her dead body. ] Maybe I ran away... Um. Anyway, just can you please keep standing t-there? I can't look...
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Date: 2021-09-10 08:45 am (UTC)[Is this one of the differences between them? Given the opportunity, choosing not to bolt? It's been on his mind lately.]
Right. Ah, maybe you should close your eyes. This way...
[He's going to keep himself between her and the body still but just in case... he's sort of guiding her with the hand, around and away from it, a faint but there pressure on her shoulder-blades, one last backward glance over his shoulder at the body before it disappears from view around the corner. That's when he lets the hand return and sink back into his scarf.]
It's gone now, Sara...
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Date: 2021-09-11 06:21 am (UTC)[ He dropped the honorific, and even if the circumstances are horrible, Sara can't help but feel a little better for it.
Given the opportunity choosing not to bolt...perhaps in that respect they are different. When faced with something difficult, Sara has always chosen to take responsibility, for better or worse. But Sou has tried in his own way, hasn't he? He's trying now...
She doesn't close her eyes, but she walks lock stepped in front of Sou till they reach the corner in front of the lobby. Only then does she exhale, sagging in her skin and covering a pale face with her hand.]
How uncool of me. Sorry, Sou. [ There's probably going to be more bodies, she needs to get it together. If she's dead...is it prideful to assume more people would be? She's not that important, but... ]
Lets move quickly...if this is the second floor... Do you think theres anything on the computers right now?
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Date: 2021-09-11 06:52 am (UTC)...Let's just get it over with, huh. And don't you mean the third floor?
[That's right, this argument is starting. We're doing this.]
Depends... we don't know where the laptop is right now... Don't have tokens for the AIs either, if we can even use them.
[IF HE HAD SARA'S STOLEN WALLET ON HIM WHEN HE DIED IT'S GONE NOW.]
There's the Joe AI... (...) ...Don't think it would know anything, though. If we had Ranger's chip... that'd open up a lot more options for us. Everything's really locked down.
[And it's Annoying. The irritation seeps into his voice. It's almost like they planned the game with you in mind, Shin. I don't know if he ever found out about the passage to the first floor but since it needs a specific Gin-code let's say not.]
REGAIN HER WALLET AND GIVE IT BACK TO HER. APOLOGIZE.
Date: 2021-09-11 07:06 am (UTC)The laptop. It didn't get taken to the next floor... Weren't you just keeping it in your room until then? [ Or maybe her Sou still had it, but had just hidden it, a disturbing thought. ] If...If that was me...then it can't be the main game yet. There's a ten minute break before the game so they would have cleaned the body up.
[ She remembers how quickly they came to collect Mishima's. So that body had to be extremely recent. Even more curious if it was her collar that killed her, then there was no way the organization didn't know where her body was.]
Joe...? [ She's so wrapped up in her thoughts the name takes a second to register before she remembers, oh, balancing guy. Yeah she doesn't want to think about him. ] Lets forget about the AI's for now! The laptop or Rangers chip...might be more within our grasp.
LISTEN HE'S ALREADY BEEN DECKED ONCE
Date: 2021-09-11 07:43 am (UTC)[They're both wrong, it's actually floor B4 because they're underground. He goes from looking smug to glancing down in hard thought.]
I've been thinking about that... if this fake you committed a rule violation of some kind...
[It... feels like it both makes sense and doesn't. Sara isn't... well, okay, she can be stupid or weird sometimes, but not really in a way that directly jeopardizes her that badly.
Also ??? Bit of an odd response. He would have thought she'd have wanted to see the AI... he was a bit prepared to try and head her off from that because he'd realized halfway though going through the computers he could remember that it was probably still in it's unaltered state and he'd have to fix it before turning it on but... still, saves him from having to do that... he grins.]
Right! If this is before the main game... then it's absolutely still in my room. And you're the one who found the chip in the first place, right? You know where it is. [He and Miss Nao didn't know much more than that the evil AI had told her to get it from Sahalin, so that was a lucky break... a lucky break taking advantage of Sara's amazing tendency to velcro up important items.]
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Date: 2021-09-11 08:09 am (UTC)[ Genuinely frustrated...]
I..d-don't think I'd violate the rules so brazenly? [ Its not like there were many rules. What could she have done? Refused to enter the main game? Tried to escape? But there was no evidence of either. ] But that was an execution...so there must be a reason.
Lets head there. [ She's turning the corner to the main lobby, pushing open the door so they can walk through to the rooms. ] Kai's laptop first. For the chip we'd need both Rio and Sahfalin here. Rio has to die to get it.
[ So, Kai's laptop might be there best way to search this place. Unless they want to team up to kill different robot. Sara pushes at the door firmly, making the dark hallway flash with light and the sudden blow of the same dark charred scent of the stairs. A few bodies lay crumpled, Keiji lies still in a similar pool of blood, but Reko, a little closer to the door, is an headless husk ending in a tangle of charred wires. Sara goes very still for a second, and then firmly, pointledly, steps over her. ]
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Date: 2021-09-11 08:35 am (UTC)Thankfully for him the conversation moves on, and then Sara opening the door kills it.]
...Ah.
[So it's... not just Sara. He stands in the doorway for a bit, looking down. The doll Reko... he closes his eyes and smoothly moves around her, coming up next to Sara. A little more of that familiar nervousness is edging back into his disposition despite himself. He couldn't even really say why.]
What happened here... I-it's like a massacre. [A horrible thought starts to occur to him, that he wants to be wrong about. Sometimes, every so often, a tendency to extrapolate will turn out to be on the right track. He scratches at his neck through the scarf, slowly.] Do you think... the others...?
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Date: 2021-09-11 08:47 am (UTC)[ Sara says it calmly, but her voice is flat and stiff. There's a tremor of anger, or a tremor of fear, but shes stamping both down enough to push her bangs out of her face and not look at Keiji's body in the corner. That's not him. The real Keiji is alive. ]
To execute three people...would be wasting votes, right? So it could be, the game is over? They didn't need us anymore? [ What a terrible thought. She turns to look at Sou with a haunted expression, before she squares her shoulders and looks him dead on. ]
Sou, are you still sure you want to go look in your room?
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Date: 2021-09-11 09:19 am (UTC)[Put there to thin out the herd... Disgusting, really. He faces her haunted expression with an empty smile before turning his head away.]
But execution... can't be they just got bored, could it?
[He glances back up at her after she squares her shoulders and asks.]
.......It's like you said, isn't it? If we want a clue, then we have to go forward.
[The worst part about things like this, he doesn't miss it. Nobody will just give you the answers, Shin. Go find things out for yourself. But he can brace himself for what they might find. It's not real. It never happened. This is all just... the school's macabre puppet show. Kanna is out there and alive and... as fine as he could hope for. And himself... well, he's died before...
...and the elevator is still there. There's a beat and then he starts moving.]
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Date: 2021-09-11 09:39 am (UTC)Balancing. [ Sara mutters quietly when Shin brings up first trials as if thats a concept she's explained to him. Again, another knot in the web of preparation. She coughs, raising her voice as she follows after him. ] I don't think I'm wrong. This game had a purpose, like these collars. So I absolutely can't believe they'd kill us on a whim.
[ She follows after him towards his room, but half a step behind. Normally stalwart, Sara doesn't want to be close when it comes to Sou's room. The knowledge of her own corpses location is strange comfort. They've already seen it, so there's no way it can be here, doing anything suspicious. With that in mind, it should be easy to put her worries and sins aside, and help Sou...right? ]
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Date: 2021-09-12 12:04 pm (UTC)Ahaha... well, you'd know more wouldn't you?
[A bit of a jab, Midori's last name the tuning fork it's done with... but also his way of dropping slash conceding the argument.
His pace is brisk and stiff but at least there's no other bodies in the hall connecting the rooms... Shin comes to a stop at his, staring at the door. The scarf swings with the motion and stills like a pendulum. He sets his hand on the doorknob. There's a second or two before he inhales, exhales, and opens it like ripping off the bandaid.
The smell of blood instantly once more assaults their senses. Shin freezes, fingers dangling then falling off the doorknob, looking into the room with widened eyes before slowly walking in.]
cracks my knuckles as i prepare to spend my evening writing more descriptions of corpses
Date: 2021-09-13 06:19 am (UTC)[ She doesn't have a response to that. Instead, she stands silently behind him as Shin turns the handle. His eyes widen, and he steps inside shakily, following by the reeking stench of blood. Sara falls in half step behind him, tugging at the bow of her uniform with hidden anxeity.
Shin's room looks much the same as it had, all those months ago. The bed is crumpled and unmade, the warm lights ascew and the windows dark. The only splash of color is a vivid stain of red and teal crumpled by the side of the bed. Shin lies chest down...the head itself is missing, instead replaced by a stain of lurid red which blends into the puddle of singed scarf. His hand is still outstretched, reaching out forward with bloody fingers and several broken nails. As Sara stares, she could almost swear she saw them twitch, but that might have been her own rapidly blurring vision.
But that wasn't the only thing in the room, when Sara raised her gaze to the bedside table, Sara saw a familiar bucket and mess of green hair that had every half hearted comfort dead in its tracks. ]
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Date: 2021-09-13 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-13 07:01 am (UTC)On the outside, he just sways a little, glazed eyes fixed on it and hand firmly in scarf. His mind is oil on water suddenly, separated out. He's watching himself move.]
Gloomy... [It's a murmur, a comment, a sigh, detached. He takes a step forward, and actually lifts his eyes up and what he sees... it's enough to crash through that like the crack of lightning that happens when two charges collide. His voice is very, very small.]
...K- Kanna...?
[Kanna? It's the only thought in his head. That she still has her head is registering on the subconscious level but not breaking through.]
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Date: 2021-09-13 07:24 am (UTC)Sou! SOU!
[ Kanna Kazuchi, small, collarless and alive, stands on the other side of the bed, shaking like a leaf. The front of her shirt is stained with blood, her eyes are glazed and shaking but she looks at Shin with a feverish clarity. ]
Y-you're alive? Did it stop? Did Kanna mistake something again? ...She thought she saw...
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Date: 2021-09-13 08:00 am (UTC)Aha... ahaha... That's my line... I'm... I'm alive, Kanna... I'm sorry I couldn't...
[Tell you. Be there for you. Be a better person in general, when it came to you.
It's not real.]Come here, Kanna. Don't... don't look at it... It's not real.
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Date: 2021-09-13 08:14 am (UTC)[ It's funny because...its not a convincing lie. The body is right there between them, like the phone, like everything else, but Kanna isn't the type of girl. She wanted to stand on her own, for the kind words of the people who protected her...but it was their words that mattered, even if they were lies. She was weak like that. Even if Sou wasn't real, she wanted to see him again. She wanted to hear: It's alright.
She sprints to meet him, stepping over his own body to grip at the corners of his jacket. Her sleeves are wet and red, but she reaches up a shaking hand to grab at his scarf and sob into his chest. ]
Kanna was so afraid. She...she thought you were gone, Sou. Kanna was so useless, she couldn't do anything. Again and again...she can't protect anyone. [ The rest is cut off by a sob. ]
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