(open) break yourself inside out

[decrypter]

who: Whoever wants to show up.
what: Nine body pileup, who wants to compile info.
when: 10/7, at least
where: Dorms study hall
warnings: Attempted murder over children's games

[in the afternoon, a message shows up on the forums. is she copying Natsume? utterly, since his organization is why she's thinking about this.]

h.adams

Please try to set aside an hour or so of your time this evening at around 7:30 pm to return to the study hall. I'd like to speak with as many people as possible regarding the recent incident in the school.
-H.A.

[and she won't be replying to anything posted below it.

by the time the hour rolls around, Helena's set herself up in the study hall with the rolling whiteboard she took from the school set up. the markers are a toss up between colors, but the important part is there. she's seated herself by it, and when 7:30 hits, an alarm on her PDA goes off. silencing it, she stands up.]

Thank you for coming. I realize it's another demand on people's time, but given the vast scope of the murders, there's more to be said than unsaid. With it, we had no choice but to split up and find what we could, to do our best at the least to remember and categorize what we saw. Generally speaking, I'd like if we could pool our resources to see if we might draw any parallels between what was where, and if there are any peculiarities to distinguish this or that event.

With that said - [she points behind her at the whiteboard, where Rantarou has been kind enough to write out a list] - if we could try to speak individually, we could write down anything critical shared, so we could look at it from a larger perspective. As well, if something comes up in other days, we could reconvene and add in new information.

As I am unable to do it for you, please allow my dependable transcriber to do so. And a final note before we begin - if anyone becomes overly agitated, I request that you kindly step outside until you can keep your voice to a moderate level. Sound echoes well enough without yelling added to the mix.

Let's begin.

Comments

[necrophily]

[ ok now he's getting irritated. what the fuck does komaeda mean by his favorite thing??

he sighs again, gripping the edge of the table. ]

Fucking "A".

[commences]

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| ⠀⠀ |
| ⠀ ⠀O
|    \⠀|
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_ _ _ A _

( CLAP CLAP CLAP!!! GENIUS!!! FUCKING A! gordon ramsey vibes... )

Finally, you got one! I knew you could do it...

[necrophily]

[ FINALLY. ]

Shut up.

[ he's annoyed. ]

"S".

[commences]

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| ⠀⠀ |
| ⠀ ⠀O
|    \⠀|⠀/
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_ _ _ A _

( is he... failing again!? )

Dito-kun... please...

[necrophily]

Shit.

[ he practically spits. ]

What the hell do you even think I like?

[commences]

Wrong.

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| ⠀⠀ |
| ⠀ ⠀O
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_ _ _ A _

You have one more chance, Dito-kun... "Shit" is unfortunately, not the answer... that doesn't even have an "A".

[necrophily]

Whatever.

[ Dito shoves the heels of his boots against the edge of the table at this point, pushing his chair back with a bit of a squeak against the floor before he stands up.

His hand hesitates at the dagger on his belt for a half a second, before he grabs his spear. He steps closer to Komaeda, immediately moving to swing it and press the sharp edged part right toward the other's throat. He'll meet the other's skin too, pressing in further but not more than a pinprick (lol). ]

I want it anyway. Give me it.

[commences]

( he's too fast, unfortunately, so as the blade comes to his throat, cutting at the skin — not enough to rip his neck, but enough that blood beads up though the cut, rolling down his neck as he swallows down the saliva stuck in his throat. he was excited, for a moment, the cool steel against his neck, the same one he remembers when stabbing minato in his hand—

during the swipe, komaeda has bumped up against the white board with his back, and has collided onto the ground ass first — a hand up to his throat, wiping away some of the blood that stings in the area. he looks up at the other with teh arm tucked against his chest like he doesn't want to let go, and then his eyes fall upon the dagger. )

Ah...? Are you going to kill me here and now? The first time you managed to harm me on your own volition without my consent...

( if he recalls correctly, but he's scooting back with a small smile, slipping underneath the whiteboard so he can use it as a get away means of something in dito's path. is he running away? no, he's having fun, i promise you. )

[necrophily]

I really, really wanna kill you so bad.

[ dito grins now, wondering if anyone is even able to stop him at this point. he takes a step forward, shoving his spear into the floor right next to komaeda's side. ]

I'm gonna lick the blood off your hand and enjoy it, goddammit...

[ and then take the arm, because he can. once he offs the other, anyway. that might even be more exciting than the arm at this point, and it gets dito's heart racing.

he crouches down over the other, the fingers on his spare hand that isn't gripping his spear in an almost balancing way hovering over his belt before he takes out his dagger, moving to point it at komaeda's chest. ]

I'm so tired of you.

[decrypter]

[the slam of her cane on the ground can probably be heard throughout half the dorms at least. Helena, standing up out of her chair, and the sound waves are enough that they might be felt, a ghost on the skin -

but it's Dito who will take the full brunt of it, with the ringing in his ears enough to disorient, to throw him off balance and slow him. for at least ten seconds, the sound will have him in its grip, and everyone in the room will be aware of him, aware of his presence, his exact motions, the way he's crouched. sight, after a fashion.]

Komaeda, move.

[it's spoken not as a plea but more like a command, a knowledge granted to her of exactly how precarious this situation is. and the full knowledge that she'll take this man's murderous intent and fury upon herself if she has to - because she knows exactly what she'd need to do to survive, how to get outside in under fifteen seconds, to lose him in the dark.]

*replies here, edits my tag*

[commences]

( there's this thought in his mind, maybe a chance he could die here? but it feels so hopeless to die here, the thought of dying by the hands of...

the thought of dying after he hasn't finished what he's had to do... there's still much he has to do...

it feels like static in his head as he feels the sharp blade against his chest — a different sort of feeling compared to the spear that went through his stomach in his youth, but to know that if he moves forward — it'll break the skin, push into the cavity of his chest. it's practically hard to resist.

he's not listening to dito properly, his thoughts are too muddled to even think straight, that's why as he lifts his mechanical hand to wrap it around dito's wrist while he's disoriented by helena's interference that he takes advantage of —

he tries to push the blade closer to himself, to feel the sting against his chest, piercing the clothes to the skin until a spot of red begins to — )

[subtract]

[There's a flicker of blue that washes over the room, the faint sound of a clock ticking down that lingers around Komaeda—Helena is probably the only one who can still hear it, steadily counting the seconds.

Add doesn't bother standing up, but he does scowl in Dito's direction.]

Can we not?

[silentabyss]

It's Dito. Are you shocked?

ur linear progression

[sisters]

( it's a jarring moment, but it's true — it looks like out of the whole room, there's only one person who really takes the brunt of it. amami watches the scene slowly unfolding, the glint of that dagger under the light, the game, the blood that pooled on the ground under rika's body. his own movements are just as decisive, because it looks like komaeda's not going to be listening to helena no matter how much he should, and amami himself is already nearly seeing red.

so standing just at the other side of the whiteboard already, it doesn't take much for amami to close the distance — to put himself between them so that he can take dito's wrist in his hand and forcibly pull the dagger away from komaeda's chest. )

Komaeda-kun, she said move.

( and if you think he's going to stand by and just watch you do this— )

thank u im dying

[necrophily]

[ he really didn't expect anyone to be brave enough to interrupt him. but here we are.

he scowls when amami grabs his wrist, turning his head to pay the other attention. which isn't a good thing.

he cocks his head at the other, frowning in an almost bored way. ]

Who are you?

[ this doesn't have shit to do with him, as far as he's concerned.

he thrusts his arm forward to shove the blade right into amami's chest. it's probably off point with amami grabbing his wrist and all, and he misses anything vital, stabbing a little too low. it's enough to fracture a rib, maybe. but it's not fatal.

still, amami will end up with a knife in his chest, that dito almost immediately tries to pull out without any delicacy. ]

Annoying bitch.

[subtract]

[SoT is on cooldown so

sorry amami ur on ur own lol gl]

[decrypter]

[the waves linger, for that moment, and she knows this room now with perfect clarity. can see what happens, and what happens next is reflexive, with him right there. there are no pallets to slam, nothing to turn around and trick someone with, but the top of her cane is heavy and metal. before it leaves her, before she's left with fleeting work, Helena simply moves to shove the end of it into Dito's side, all her weight behind it to move him away and try to unbalance him more.

her aim is perfectly true, and it's a hard push, but it also makes her stumble in his direction - she's not used to this, she's not a fighter, but she is not afraid. rather, there's the simple desire to prevent it from getting worse. even she can take a blow or two for someone else.]

[necrophily]

[ he's not expecting it when it hits.

he groans, his ears ringing as he's about to crouch down, but then helena's hiting him in the side and he's definitely falling over, even dropping his dagger. he looks pained as he takes a few deep breaths, not even paying attention to whatever's going on around him.

his head is kind of spinning, and he feels disoriented. ]

Fucking hell... [ he says, moving a hand up to his forehead. he's not a fan of this, and he doesn't feel like moving right now, either. ]

What'd you do?

[sisters]

( it's not like amami didn't factor it in as a possibility but, still, maybe he'd had expected a little too much out of whatever it was that had happened in that moment. moving on impulse, and paying the consequences for it when dito turns; amami's eyes meet with his for an instant, and all the air is snatched from his lungs as a white-hot pain pierces through his chest.

he stumbles back a step, and dito stumbles too — falls, really, though amami is too stunned to really take in the reason why the dagger slips from the wound. he looks down instead, blinking as he takes in the brilliant red that's begun to blossom at the front of his sweater. it's very distant feeling, and time feels like it's slowed down around him, but as the colour slowly spreads across the fabric, he can't help but acknowledge that maybe he'd gotten himself in a little bit over his head with this one.

but... he can't bring himself regret it, when he accepted this risk for a reason.

turning his head, his gaze is searching for komaeda. )

[commences]

( it's a whirlwind of things — voices here, voices there, and it's so loud that he can't stand it, but he can hear the thump of his own heart in his chest. where is it all coming from, he doesn't know — perhaps he was excited what he did to himself, through reckless, but he did it on his own. there's a lot that passes in his field of vision — from the students that he didn't expect to appear, their helping hands in a way that observe the situation, that try to find some way to help — it's out the corner of his eye he sees natsume, and with the way his fingers light up, a familiar sight. to watch helena cause dito to fumble in his movements, crippling him for a moment, but to see this all happen because of what amami has found himself in.

...
...
...

it's so sickly familiar that komaeda can feel bile edge up his throat, a concern of his own luck because he's always been lucky — unscathed as long as someone close by took the damage instead. he doesn't show fear, but his life has always scared him, made it hard to live and breathe, it's why at the moment he didn't mind going for it on his own terms. perhaps inaba is right and komaeda needs to learn to cope better —

seeing people like add and shin, distant, but act in their own way of concern or if you can call shin's out of his wits concern, but he knows what add did — he's always quick to do so. as for when his eyes connect with amami, sickly green empty as per usual, lack of thoughts, of anything behind hates the sight of blood that blooms on the ultimate's clothes, but his heart beats rapidly from the hope that's to come from this — he doesn't know if he should be happy, or disappointed in himself, but it's a mix of both.

...

so to be alive at the moment, he watches as meng yao and noah quickly run to amami's aid, and unfortunate for komaeda, he finds himself getting to his feet, and the arm still tucked in his arms is set on the conveniently placed table next to him. it's always his luck that puts him in these positions where he feels out of it, and he decides that it's enough. when there's despair, hope is always around to swallow it whole, and brighten the path for them. komaeda's used to looking at that from afar, anyway, and so he decides to leave without a word. )

[crystallomancy]

( —natsume is not all bark and no bite most times, but today is not most times. he's started half a step by the time amami's already there, so he stops, feeling just as caught as when he'd seen rika's sword coming for him and shuichi stepped in front of him to catch it.

...why is it always amami, actually?

he retracts his step, but his fingers are aglow with celestial magic, pooling at their tips. )

[notsosou]

[It's like one of his premonitions, the little hunches that race ahead of thought and action like a pilot fish or the invisible motion of lightning before it's strike, only it feels like someone has slammed on the accelerator and sent it to 100% holy fuck is he extremely aware and afraid of every inch of Dito right now.]

[necrophily]

[ boo ]

[dokkans]

[ not here but holy SHIT this is great

this place is so much fun! ]

[necrophily]

[ can we kiss ]