MISSION 2.A

[adsum]

Participants: Shin, Sidney, Hajun, Atsushi
Location: Fourth Floor
Date: 08/08 - 08/14

(ooc notes: I will state any possible content warnings in the subject line of the mod response when it comes up. If anything makes you uncomfortable, please tell me so I can back off and refocus the thread.

There will be no tag order, and a mod response will come after at least 4 player responses 3 player responses OR the next day, whichever is earlier. Please note this means that if you're absent for a day or more, the thread will move on, but I will pace things so that people aren't missing large plot beats.)

Comments

*penguin voice* youuuu didn't see anything

[notsosou]

[Shin is kind of wishing he'd asked Nene more about magic as he quickly leafs through, trying to find a non-potentially-horrific fairytale (not easy). It's one thing to think of the possibility, it's another to know anything about what to do about it. It's going on the 'if I get out of here' pile. I was joking about the too-many-clubs thing and now look where we are. He glances at the ladder, closing and trapping the book under an arm and making his way over.]

Right! [Addressed to Haruka, with a smile that's a bit 'indulging a little kid' but he's trying. She's trusting them even if the reflexive thought is 'terrible idea'. She is right about only one of them needing to leave. Something in the back of his mind is grinning and he's pointedly ignoring it. He holds the book out to her one-handed.] Aha... here. You should hold onto this just in case.

[Even with some of his breath back he doesn't have much faith in his ability to move the empty, not-Sidney-occupied ladder, Hajun aside, and even in a sort-of life or death situation doesn't really want to be seen failing to. But, on the flip side, at a somewhat medically concerning 49kg Shin might be fairly moveable himself. He's a nimble if rusty climber, visibly puffing by the time he's perched at the top and with one hand keeping his scarf over his mouth and nose as he peers into the smoke.]

[rhymed]

[ It takes one look at Sidney for Hajun realizes he has some responsibility here. More so, he should be more demanding when it comes down to ensuring the older man doesn't kill himself from bleeding out so heavily: ] Sit, will you? The two of us can work on our own, but I doubt we'd be able to carry your body out here alive.

[ So... yeah, while Shin is climbing up the ladder Hajun is standing at the floor, holding onto the rotting wood. His fingers curl in, nails digging in slightly, before he cants his head to ask a damning question. ]

What do you see~?

[ He almost says it teasingly... like it's game... go ahead and beat his ass later idk. ]

[adsum]

[ Haruka takes the book in her arms, staring down at the cover. It's a familiar one, one that's kept her company for much of her time here that would have otherwise been spent waiting. ... She looks up at Shin expectantly. What does he see?

He sees ceiling tiles covered in soot, and if he pushes up against the ceiling he can find that some of them shift upwards into the crawlspace above. Shin and Haruka would be able to fit inside easily, Hajun possibly, Sidney...

... ]

[wolfetracks]

( hajun is... right, honestly, but he's at least pulling a chair over instead of sitting on the floor, because that was. bad. and uncomfortable. after a moment, though, he gestures to the axe laying beside the lump of wet black cloth that is definitely not hiding a wolf head. )

I can stay here for a bit. Take the axe for right now, and come around from the other side.

[notsosou]

[He glances down at Hajun with slight annoyance under a layer of put-on indifference (he'd lose that fight for sure) and then experimentally pushes up on the tile immediately above and it yields to reveal darkness, to his immense relief.]

There's a way out!

[He manages to hoist himself up into it with some scrabbling and leg kicking and then peers out down through the hole at the others, one hand holding his beanie from falling down as he calls down.]

I-I'm just going to go on ahead. See you soon. [The axe... much as it's tempting, in a small space there isn't much room to swing, and he has his knife. He hasn't been in the crawlspaces before, but if he can just find an exit to elsewhere in the school... he can duck back in if things seem dangerous, right? His head disappears from view as he turns back into the crawlspace and cups his hand around the lighter, flicking it for light.]

[adsum]

[ The blue flame casts the crawlspace in an icy glow, illuminating smears of blood here and there, all dry and brown with age, but it's more or less a straight shot towards where the hallway would be.

Down below, they can hear Shin shuffling around above the ceiling, inching closer and closer to leading them all to freedom. Haruka takes a seat next to Sidney, leaning heavily against the chair to prop herself up with that fairytale book on her lap. Idly, she opens the book, some pages sticking together while others easily fall open where she'd read and reread her favorite stories, losing herself in a world of princes and fairy godmothers where little girls are saved and supported and loved. Happy endings where the pain in her stomach would go away. Her mouth and throat wouldn't be so dry it hurts to speak. Her vision wouldn't be so blurry, her body wouldn't feel so heavy.

"Stay in here where you'll be safe."

"Don't make a noise, or it'll hear you."

"We'll be right back."

...

So she stayed and kept quiet and waited. And waited, and waited, and waited.

...

Haruka flips the page, looking down at the illustration of the hunter holding an axe saving Little Red Riding Hood from the Big Bad Wolf. Spots of her blood cover the wolf's mouth, smeared over the hunter and the girl, page slightly wrinkled with bitter thoughts of a different ending where there are no heroes that swoop in to save the day at the very last moment. But she looks up and sees the hunter in Sidney, next to him the head of the wolf she'd been so terrified of that she daren't call for help in those first few days— if only she did. She can hear Shin up above, like a fairy godmother up in the sky who would bring about a miracle and set them all free. She looks over at Hajun, who is... just standing there, but he looks like a prince.

And she looks down at her lap and smiles to herself, letting her eyes slide closed. In this memory, time stretches on and on and never ending, but she always knew she would die here in the library, forgotten and wasted away to nothing. Just this once, though... wouldn't it be nice, if she gets a fairytale ending? ]