Week 5

[airlockedmods]

Week 5

[In a tragic yet seemingly inevitable turn of fate, the Champions have lost Zombina this week. OsoKaramatsu and Korra, too, are gone, both having fallen in their attempts to help their fellow Champions out of terrible circumstances.

Again, the Champions will find themselves experiencing strange dreams on Sunday night, until they're awakened by C.E.C.E.'s announcement. This is all starting to become routine.]

Congratulations, Champions! By surviving your third trial, you have unlocked the fourth floor of the ship. A new mini map has been added to your P.I.P.!

[The trash compactor is completely shiny and new again. In addition, the profiles on the P.I.P.s still inticate that Karamatsu is dead. Because of course he is, right?

Fuck you.]


Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday



(( Welcome to Week 5! Don't forget to check in and submit your memory regains! Turn in your benefactor threads for sweet loot, too! ))

Comments

[playthedamncard]

[The touch to his shoulders was strange enough--on top of Yuri's hug. Nobody gets physically familiar with him but Mokuba. He's closed off and prickly. Nothing about him looks comfortable to hold. It was only ever Yuugi--only ever the pharaoh who might dare to touch him in a way that wasn't a prelude to violence.

Everything is catching up, and it's overwhelming. But he can focus on touch. His eye snaps back open, regarding Akira with surprise mixed in with the panic guilt panic horror panic shame.]

She nearly did. Pretty sure. [Short phrases. Easier. Breathe. Breathe. Akira is warm, and warmth is appreciated right now.] We're...lucky.

[le_mat]

[Akira breathes right along with him, offering a deep pattern to focus on and mimic. He knows himself, knows this isn't purely empathy that makes him seek this out- if he can focus on Kaiba he can slowly ease himself into the idea that he wasn't ruined too. He always handled others better then himself.

Still, that raw scared look is familiar. He's reminded, suddenly, of Ryuji. Ryuji who couldn't be more different then Kaiba, who was physical and loud and warm. Who had that same look sometimes when someone touched him that he didn't see coming. Akira feels something like rage bubble in him. ]

Maybe, yeah. Maybe we got more shit to do first.

[playthedamncard]

[Breathing in time, slowing down, taking himself out of the moment back to now. Present. Here. Not on the floor screaming in agony. Not writhing in Blaze's grasp or curled in Bolton's arms.

There's part of him that demands he get away, but he doesn't. It's too late for that now. He's shown vulnerability to everyone, but with Akira, it's more than that. It's solidarity now, and if he's going to let anyone do this, if he's going to show this to anyone, it's going to be the guy he went through the experience with. His hands start to relax, and his shoulders, while still tense, drop.]

...We do. As long as we're alive, we can do something.

Plus, payback would be nice.

[le_mat]

[akira drops his hands, letting Kaiba go... But doesn't exactly pull away yet.

That comment makes him smirk, all dangerous promise]

Oh, it's gonna be so good.

[playthedamncard]

[He's so tired and frazzled and his heart is still beating a rapid pace, but even through that, the smirk he flashes in return has the taste of danger and wicked wildness that will be familiar now from confronting Petuu.

But it's only there for a second before it drops again. They'll have to figure out how to get around it; she could probably electrocute and kill them all in one swipe of her phone if she so felt it.

He reaches up to Akira's face, though he doesn't touch, fingers lingering outside vision range, hovering around the bandage.]

Should we check you, too, or was seeing this more than enough?

[le_mat]

... probably should. You up for that?

[Akira's not even sure HE is, honestly. Even preparing himself by seeing Kaiba might never be enough]

[playthedamncard]

Might as well keep the momentum up. I promise I'll be careful. [He gets to his feet.] Go on, sit. I'm not making you do all the work here.

[le_mat]

[Akira sit quietly, glad to rest his legs. They were starting to knock with something that wasn't just exhaustion.]

...

[playthedamncard]

[Kaiba's good with his hands, even with shitty nerve damage and the cold, long fingers working carefully to unwrap everything as Akira had.

Bad enough to see it on himself. To see it mirrored back on Akira, that someone else had to suffer for his foolish pride, makes him forget how to breathe for a moment.]

[le_mat]

[Akira was lucky in that his nose didn't end up damaged like Kaiba's had- but he pays for that luck in the wound trailing up into his hairline from Petuu's upswing. Otherwise the scene is about the same- red hot skin and char and... well.]

Y-you know, they say chicks dig battle damage....

[playthedamncard]

[Breathe. Shit. Akira was there for him, time to return the favor.] I think you're going to have to rely on your charm and wit rather than your looks from now on. But imagine the story you can tell.

[le_mat]

Good thing I have those in spades.

[For all his cocky bluster, his good eye is narrowed, like he's fighting the need to close it and hide]

[playthedamncard]

...We're going to get out of here, and we're going to be fine. [If he says it often enough, eventually it's got to be true.

He gently brushes away some of Akira's mop-like hair from both sides of his face.]

There might be side effects. They'll be temporary. We'll recover, and we'll take the next step from there.

[le_mat]

[This time he does close his eye, focusing on the light touch of fingertips. He wants Kaiba to be right. Hell, he had said it himself to him and to others.

Cognition. The world is what we believe it is. If he gave up heart now, he might as well have not survived at all. He nods]

Yeah. I'm not done yet.

[playthedamncard]

I'm going to keep my word, you know. If you decide to do something stupid, I'm going to talk you down. Because if we're going to do something stupid, it's going to be together, apparently.

[le_mat]

[His lips quirk up at that, looking away with a bout of nerves]

You better. Come on, lets get these wrapped back up.

[playthedamncard]

Right. It looks-- [Fine? No. Not the word.] It doesn't look infected, at any right. They've been taking good care of us. We just have to make sure to keep up with it.

[Talking about it as though it were some routine injury helps. Like it's nothing to panic about, like it's nothing that's going to damage them for life. He takes great care in wrapping Akira back up.]

[le_mat]

Getting sick after all this would be pretty stupid. Should be able to go back to our rooms by tomorrow I think.

[Once he's done, Akira does the same]

[playthedamncard]

Maybe you should ask Olguin to give you a haircut before you go showing off your new face to everyone.

[le_mat]

Excuse you I have never cut or brushed my hair even once in my life and I'm not about to start now.

[Obviously he has, but he does look over at the slightly more reflective nearby chrome, pushing back his hair to get an idea of how it'd look. No matter what he does it's going to grow uneven, so better to embrace it, yeah? Between that and his lack of glasses, it's more of his face then he's ever shown in the station.]