Week 2

[airlockedmods]

Week 2

[The Champions have now been here for one week, and while the dud of a first incentive didn't tempt anybody, the fact remains obvious: a lack of murder isn't going to be the thing that gets you out of here.

Blaze Dudely and Rox have not made a reappearance since Tuesday, leaving you to your own devices for the moment. That door they entered and exited through remains locked, and there is no new area to access this week. Are you sure they're even still back there? Despite their absence, you all wake up on Sunday morning from strange dreams. What to make of it?

You can only hope it's not a bad omen for the rest of the week.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

(( Don't forget to turn in your AC for Week 1, submit your memory regain, and turn in your Benefactor threads! ))

Comments

[le_mat]

[he's not used to hugs he doesn't start. Hugs meant to comfort him. Not since the one his mother gave him on the train platform, too tight and full of guilt.

He doesn't resist it. Or when she leads him away.

Though he does stop right before the kitchen. The tiny screen his motive is on is still in his hand, knuckles white around it from the moment he picked it back up from the table after the chaos. He never even turned it on.

He stares at it... Then with more force then needed he throws it in the trashcan.]

Okay.... Okay, let's go.

[stillstands]

[Miki stops when Akira stops, watching as he flings his device into the trash, unwatched. Hers is somewhere back there on the floor, near Chloe's body. And she wishes she'd done the same thing - the image of Yuki, Kurumi and Yuuri trapped and then just vanishing like they'd never been there at all leaves her cold whenever she remembers it.

She takes a deep breath, and tugs once, lightly, on Akira's wrist so they can take those last steps into the kitchen.

Once in there, she goes on auto-pilot. Paper towels on the counter moved closer to Akira so he can wipe his eyes without everyone - or her - stood and watching; into the freezer for ice and cupboards for a towel to pile the cubes in and twist around to make a make-shift ice pack. That's twice in just over a week she's had to make one of these. First for Yuri, and now for Akira.]

Here. [She holds it out to him.] I'm not sure where you were injured, but this should help with any bruising...

[And finally she gets two glasses of water, sets them on the counter, and sits down. Her demeanour lasts for a moment longer, before she buries her face in her hands and lets out a very shaky, scared breath.]

... how could they?

[le_mat]

[he takes off his glasses, the lens smeared with salt, and wipes his eyes.

That done he rolls up the leg of his jumpsuit till its above his knee- it's already swollen and starting to darken.]

Fuck... Ah... Twisted it good.

[his voice is a little slurred, and at first glance it's like the shock is making him a little punch drunk. But the more he talks the clearer it is that it's a dialect]

I didn' think... They'd really do it. They won' let us close like that again. I- god what if I killed us all...?

[stillstands]

[She glances up from her hands when Akira starts talking, and her eyes go a little wide at the sight of his knee. The ice will help but they're going to need to do more than that.]

Oh--uh, shoot. Do we have something that we could wrap around it?

[And then she stops. She's noticing a pattern here, with someone trying to take everything on his shoulders - and it doesn't just feel like suspicion anymore.]

No one thought they'd do it. But... but they did, and if it wasn't now it would've been later, to someone else for... for something even more stupid than a slice on that woman's cheek--[She cuts herself off with a sucked in gulp of breath, and fiercely rubs the start of tears welling up in her own eyes with the heel of hands. Chloe-- she can't even believe she... just like that. She's gone.]

What if you hadn't intervened where you did and they'd ended up dead instead?

[le_mat]

There's... Firs' aid stuff in the storage room. I'll find 'em later. S'not Penny's fault. I panicked and thrashed...

I dunno. I just' dunno.

[stillstands]

R-right. Um...

[She grabs the chair she was sat on.] Can you raise your leg? You're supposed to rest it while it's elevated, I think. Rest, Ice... and bandages to compress the sprain?

[Who knows, who cares. Her fingers dig into the back of the chair a little too tightly to be just steadying it.]

So don't... sit here thinking about what you could've done. [What you could've done just spirals into what you should have done, you wish you'd done. Over and over. What if she'd run for Chloe, instead of Slaine? What if she'd taken Kei by the hands and talked to her instead of drowning herself in fear and not realising how deeply Kei had fallen until she just... left.

What if... is dangerous.]

What can you do now, Akira-san?

[It's not a hopeless statement. It's a question.]

[le_mat]

What can I do...

[he closes his eyes, swallowing hard so his Adams apple bobs. Deep breath]

Everyone is panicked. Scared. If someone is gonna try somethin' it'll be soon. Gotta... Get everyone focused and feelin safe again.

[stillstands]

[That... wasn't something she'd considered, but probably should've. They'd been given motives, and people were scared and desperate. If they'd kill someone they specifically brought here with their own hands, what would they do to someone that hadn't been specifically chosen? It doesn't bear thinking about.

...

Carefully, she moves around and perches at the edge of the chair.]

Yeah. The stakes have been raised so we...

[What would the club do, if they were faced with something on a scale like this? Something that would change things out of the blue for them; disrupt the balance they'd found for themselves in the middle of the end of the world.]

... process, and then we plan. Figure out what we have to do to keep people's spirits up, and give us the best chance of living? ... something like that?

[le_mat]

Yeah... 'til we have more information that's the best we got. That... bitch wants us to suffer, that's pretty obvious. If we refuse it's a win for us, even if it's just'a small one.

[stillstands]

Don't give her the satisfaction?

[... she can do that. She wants to do that. She's shaken and heartsick but after a moment she does laugh. It's tiny and bitter and almost sounds like she'd rather cry, but--]

Yeah. Chloe-san would be so mad if we just gave up now and let them win.

[le_mat]

Hell yeah she would be.

[he hesitated... Then reaches out carefully and grips her shoulder]

[stillstands]

"Hella", not hell.

[Her laugh is definitely weaker this time. But there's still something genuine about it. "Hella" was far, far more Chloe-ish.]

...? [She blinks, a little surprised at the hand on her shoulder. Yes?]

[le_mat]

Hella.

[he slowly let's his hand drop. He wanted to give back some of the comfort she'd offered, but it was hard to know what was okay]

Too forward?

[stillstands]

[Double hella. The best tribute to Chloe Price.]

... no, it's alright. [Months alone in a storage room make you somewhat unused to physical contact, who'da thunk. She reaches her hand around and gives his wrist a quick, gentle squeeze.]

I hope the others are coping okay as well. [Shock and sorrow aside, they couldn't just let this stop them from trying to find their way out, surely.]

[le_mat]

[that earns her a small smile]

They'll... They'll manage. We can't give up now.

[stillstands]

... Yeah.

We can't lose anymore people like that. Especially not if that's what they want.

[whoops]

[le_mat]

[whoops indeed]

Spite can be a damn good motivator.

[stillstands]

[gomen, we guess.]

Too much of it can make you bitter though. It needs a balance.

[le_mat]

Little hope? Fuck me, but this hellhole is just trying to kill any if that.

[stillstands]

All the more reason, then.

[Confession time.]

I had to have two people point out to me that surviving isn't living, and good things can happen if you keep living. It's tough to know what, or why you're even bothering, but...

[She shrugs.]

If you've not got something to look forward too, then there's nothing stopping you from snapping under pressure.

[le_mat]

... Good things worth living for. Huh...

[he gets it- his situation wasn't nearly as bad as Miki's but he knows how it feels to get up everyday out of obligation instead of any desire. That was his whole life during his trial. But now he had friends who didn't turn on him and a purpose.]

Even if it's small. I think I get it.

[stillstands]

It's not easy, but... I think it works.

[So!]

Maybe a starting point is figuring out what here makes us happy, so that we don't get so ... overwhelmed by everything.

[le_mat]

[he wants to ask what she could be doing where she was "just surviving". But now, after seeing Chloe die so brutally, doesn't seem like the time.

There'd be time later. There'd always be time later]

None of us would have met anywhere else. So... I think getting to know each other might be fun.

[stillstands]

[is2g.]

Yeah. Getting to know new people is fun--

[when you're not surrounded by zombies and she hasn't had the chance to just chat and meet new people in ages, really. Even if this is as dangerous as things were back home, these moments of downtime... are nice.]

-- and it'd be a waste of a chance not to. Especially with some of us from such unique worlds.