MISSION 2.C
Participants: Natsume, Komaeda, Hinata, Helena
Location: Fourth Floor
Date: 08/22 - 08/28
(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 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.)
Location: Fourth Floor
Date: 08/22 - 08/28
(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
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Helena can hear the wind blowing outside, a bit stronger than a gentle breeze, but no crunching of ice underfoot, no squabbling from the two who had left them that she might expect.
Hinata can see white: the snow's picked up, already filling in their footprints, covering the trail of blood, erasing any evidence anybody had ever been here. White covers the trees, the river, the rocks. It makes up the sky and the ground and everything around them, as if the entire world outside the cabin has faded away. ]
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our memes are making me insane
What the hell- [It slips out of him in a burst, before he can think to muffle it or at least cover Kogamo's ears. He's having too much difficulty processing what's in front of them to be thinking straight.] That's- That whiteness can't be normal, it's like everything's fading away-
[A bolt of panic goes through him.
I lost him.
He was okay. Monokuma had lied. Komaeda had been okay.
I really lost him this time.
He's not so far gone that he won't tilt Kogamo away from the cold before he leans forward, but his voice is still raw when Hinata raises his voice to yell.]
Komaeda! Sakasaki!
[He wants to be wrong. But deep down, part of Hinata already knows that he probably won't receive an answer.]
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but a nothingness...it chills her worse than the air, than the river that had nearly drowned them.]
Hajime...I don't think we're supposed to be here.
[something feels too, too wrong about this. about the world shifting and changing and spitting them back out somewhere unfamiliar, and then erasing itself on them.]
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Komaeda and Sakasaki... they don't know what's going on with them, but Helena's worries... Kogamo unwraps their arms from around Hinata's neck and a tiny hand reaches out to tug on Helena's sleeve. ]
It's okay. I'll tell daddy you're my friends.
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But Helena is right. They cannot stay here. And loathe as he is to leave them alone, Kogamo cannot come with them into that blank unknown.
Hinata crouches back down, making sure Kogamo's feet are on the floor before he unwinds his arms from around them, fingers still outreached in case they lose balance or try to hang onto him. He's calm again - the ripples in the lake have smoothed out, surface appearing undisturbed once more.]
...Thank you. If- [He breaks the word off for a moment. Isn't it bad, to suggest they won't return? But it has to be just as bad to lie, and Hinata refuses to when they've been through enough today.] ...We'll try to come back. As fast as we can, and we'll try to send your dad home even if we can't.
[If they aren't swallowed in the snow. If they don't die right here.
Hinata will stand if Kogamo has let go of him. But even if they haven't, he'll gently reach out and take hold of Helena's hand and squeeze. It's time to go now.]
Let's go out together, Helena.
[He will not leave Komaeda. And Natsume, even if he's just met him - again - he will not leave him, either.
If they have to face being swallowed up, so be it.]
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[she has to say it, with that tug on her sleeve. with that ache in her heart that wants to dash out with him, and not to simply leave him in a house that's too big for him, without a soul for comfort. without faith that something would change. if she could restore him to someone's arms - or somehow, unwind all these choices.
but right now, with the hand that's not holding Hajime's, she has her cane. and so she can crouch, while still holding on, lay it down and reach to her neck. removing the tie that her uniform came with, it might still be slightly damp, but she can press it into Kogamo's small hand. something to touch, something to have, beyond words that could be lies. what was felt solidified what was heard.]
It's a promise. Even if it takes us a while. Even if we don't seem the same. It will happen.
[even if she has to go through another endless set of cycles again. even if this is only a dream of some sort. Helena manages another smile - kind, sincere - and then straightens up with her cane.]
Ready when you are, Hajime.
[they'll go out at the same time. where they end up now...
hopefully the others are there.
the warmth of someone's hand seems all the more so, against the bitter chill.]
1/
The last thing they hear is the frantic pitter patter of bare feet, and a fretful voice. ]
Don't leave me al—-
[ Hinata and Helena are swallowed up by the light, and the rest of the world washes away. ]
2/
And then a fifth person, a middle schooler with dark hair whipping around light brown eyes, peering over at them from an unreachable distance. ]
...It's been a long time since anybody's stumbled upon this memory...
[ His voice is quiet, difficult to hear in the rushing wind and the hissing that starts to fill their heads. ]
But a memory is a memory, and the past is the past. "What could have been" does not change reality: to fall again and again and again, to break again and again and again... To struggle, to die, to fail... to drown in the futility of it all... again and again and again...
3/3
[ The boy's lips pull back in a tentative smile, and his eyes lift. ]
The thought that somebody would have helped, that somebody would have taken care of him, that he wouldn't have been alone. I doubt he'll accept me back, but that's okay.
[ The little lights float around the four of them, and with each touch, they feel heavier, sleepier, on the verge of slipping away. ]
I hope we'll meet again someday. Thank you all for trying.