un: c.gorgon 11/1

[radnarok]

[ Early Monday evening, a series of posts go up on the network. ]

@ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell

where are you? i don't understand this letter. if I wasn't supposed to read it yet, im sorry.

[ Twenty minutes later... ]

@ s.meanswell i think you forgot to come back and destroy it. you said you'd do that. hello hello. can you please respond?

...daisies don't even grow at this school steeephanie. i'm not making you a grave. its not funny. im not laughing.

[ Ten minutes later... ]

@ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell im reading the letter again. i don't like it. you need to explain it to me or im not going to shut up! why are you talking about your life like this? one persons life for another...you don't need to save anyone! i'm fine! ishimaru is fine! nene...noah... hiro... blah blah blah i don't care! who cares if everyones murdering eachother. thats not our problem!

i dont want a happy ending. i don't like endings at all. i don't know how to deal with them. so where are you?

Comments

[radnarok]

[ With Crona! Crona is here, holding their pda and looking freaked out! They don't want to lick the mysterious floor liquid for once? ]

Stephanie your letter is terrible, so come out!

[closewithnewintown]

[no response. but, the light is on; it shows underneath the door, reflects on the slightly milky-looking water. there's the shadows of feet, two of them, moving back and forth; the water moves when they do. if you're quiet, you might hear some truly terrible humming, muffled by the door.]

[silentabyss]

[Is that all we get if we're quiet...

Noah makes a motion that says "I'm going to kick the door down."

I should probably note that Noah has sickle-Clamor so Clamor is here too shhh... it's fine.]

[moraloutrage]

[Ishimaru somehow remains quiet long enough to hear the humming... He's ready to barge through the door himself when he catches Noah's motion. He answers that with a stern nod, his expression reflecting the urgency of his situation. If you want the honors of getting that door open, be his guest!]

[radnarok]

[ Kick it down, they'll back you up! ]

[silentabyss]

[alright sick

Noah rears back and kicks the fucking door down.]

1/2

[closewithnewintown]

[inside, you find the mangled corpse of ste

haha, psych, no. there are no corpses here. but, there's also no Stephanie. there's water, all over the floor. there's a weird amount of salt, some in piles, some in the terribly broken lines of a circle around a sink.

and there is a person.]

2/2

[sportadork]

[a man, for all he's wearing the same uniform they are, a schoolboy's cap on his head and a look of honestly way too mild surprise. there's a mop clutched in his hands, and a bucket by his feet.

he blinks, several times. then, he grins.]

You could have knocked, if you needed to go so badly. I am almost finished! [and he just gets back to mopping. no big deal. you guys can get to your clearly very important peeing business.]

[silentabyss]

Who the fuck—

[Noah getting in trouble in 3, 2...]

[radnarok]

[ FINISHED?? ?KILLING STEPHANIE??? ]

No no no no no no no no no no!!! Go away!!! Get out of here!! Where is Stephanie!

[ They're going to lunge at ol'Sport to try and grab him by the front of his school uniform. Sorry you got two of the most maniac and unstable people in the bathroom with u rn...... ]

[sportadork]

[he files the pithy remark about gee it's so convenient we're in a bathroom so you can wash your mouth out with soap back into his brain, because it's actually quite good and he's very proud of it. but, that's for later. because now two children (???) are attacking him and, wow, that hasn't happened since Bullytown. since... wait. who.

FILING THAT BACK AWAY, because he needs to make some quick mental calculations up in here before these poor children hurt themselves. if he can just... ah, perfect!

he drops onto the ground, never minding the mess, and rolls to the side, nearer the stalls. pushing himself off the floor with one arm, he moves into a handstand, gripping the top of one of the stalls with his ankles and pulling himself up. he perches on it, not unlike a bird, and looks down on them.]

... Stephanie? [a flash of recognition. the confusion breaks, and his grin widens.] She is here? I heard her call for me! She needs my...

[the confusion is back. he touches his temple.]

... Where am I?

[silentabyss]

[Alright Noah's beginning to think that this guy might be that sport dude Stephanie always tells Noah about, so before he answers that question, here's another question!]

...are you Sportacus? She talks about you a lot.

[sportadork]

[there's a very brief moment where the sentence "stephanie talks about you a lot" just scares the absolute shit out of him, but, it passes. clearly, he must live up to whatever sky-high expectations she has set for him, in her well-meaning way. no pressure.

he places his fists on his hips.] I am Sportacus!

... [the grin falters into something a bit apologetic.] I am sorry, but I am a little... [waves hand vaguely] But! That does not matter. I must find Stephanie.

[silentabyss]

[Someone else tell Mr. Sport here about where they are, Noah doesn't have the energy to explain.]

W-we're... looking for Stephanie now. We thought she was in here... she left some really ominous note. [Tugs Crona's sleeve like, show him. Show him the note.]

[radnarok]

You aren't going anywhere. Stephanie was here, and now she's gone, so you have to stay here until we get her back.

[ It's a rare moment when Crona does not sound like a mewling child. They stare at Sportacus with an intensity their frail body seems to shudder to try and contain. He's here, and Steph isn't. They're dumb, but its not hard to figure out. They read that letter loads of times. ]

Are you worth her life, stupid ugly guy? Would she die for you?

[ They look over at where Noah has tugged their sleeve...and pull something folded out of their pocket, but don't show it to Sportacus...yet. Answer their question first. ]

[sportadork]

... [when the voice had called for him in his sleep, he'd thought it was just the crystal. all the children had called for him in the night, at times, though never with... urgency. desperation. like she needed him for something worse than a nightmare.

... this is serious, isn't it.

the grin is gone. when he jumps from his perch, it's with no flourishes. he stands before Crona, and simply puts his hand forward.]

Let me see it. Please. [he can keep calm. serious doesn't mean. it doesn't. it can't.]

[radnarok]

Answer what I asked you, or I'm gonna rip it up.

[ There's a copy on the network, but he doesn't know that.]

[silentabyss]

[Sternly,]

Crona.

[Noah looks sharply to them. Shakes his head; it's not worth it.]

He's distressed, can't you see it? Just let him see the note.

[sportadork]

[a pause. he closes his eyes. takes a deep breath. opens them again.]

She is worth a million of me. [and that he can say with total confidence.

the second question... he wishes he could say no. but he thinks of the girl following at his heels on his patrols, her late nights sewing her own uniform, the mask she kept in her purse, how she mimicked his poses until they became her own...

and he can't. because of all the impossible things Stephanie thinks of him, there's one that's always true. and he cannot lie.]

... I hope she did not. [and that's the best he can do right now. he can only hope that's enough.]

[radnarok]

Shuuut up Noah.

[ Oh so Noah is allowed to be upset and kill people and throw huge tantrums in a clocktower and stab himself a bunch but if Crona is sad and wants to threaten this guy or punch somebody they can't?? Fine!!! They'll be super duper mature!!

They're really mad...and really sad. It's terrible. Why is this happening? They think they hate this guy more then they hated Noah when he killed Hyde, but if this is Stephanies friend, then they can't do anything. They don't know what to do. They don't want to like anyone right now. ]

Haha! Yeah. I agree. [ They hold the note up and out to Sportacus with a smile. ] Here. You can keep it. Welcome to a dumb school that makes you dead. I guess Stephanie is double dead, so you can be only a bit dead? Haha...

[sportadork]

[... okay actually how do you respond to any of that.]

... Thank you? [so much being pushed into the cobwebby corners of his brain because the Save Stephanie directive is overriding basically everything but remembering to breathe.

okay. note-reading time. "dear everyone," very nice start, very polite, very oh it goes so badly so quickly. oh, stephanie. where has she been... where has he been?

as he reads the note, his eyes dart around the bathroom as if seeing it for the first time, which... isn't he? because he's pretty sure he was a high school student looking to clean up a mess he found five minutes ago, when he was also a grown man sleeping in an airship, except apparently both at once, and oh how two years of exclusively dealing with Children Problems has left him very unprepared for whatever this is.

all of this translates outside of his brain to an absolute struggle of a face journey as he reads through this letter, and he looks up at the children feeling...]

... I believe I am lost. [which isn't a great thing to express to children in a scary situation. but, y'know. the can't lie thing.]

2/2 actually discord encouraged me

[silentabyss]

[Noah punches Sportacus.]

[suspiciousweapon]

[the sickle is vibrating NOAH PLEASE, DON'T DO THAT?? THIS MAN HASN'T DONE ANYTHING YET, WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED— NOAH—]

[radnarok]

[ Such admirable bloodlust in this random scythe...Crona is encouraged to fight harder. ]

[silentabyss]

[heehee tickly sickle man

at least Noah didn't stab him]