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

[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? ]